From the global climate crisis to international space exploration, the challenges and opportunities within the world of science are significant.
At the same time, the advancement of science and tech has opened up a swathe of new sectors and job opportunities, and yet, the reality is there remains a severe shortage of skilled workers to meet industry demand.
In the UK alone, 43 per cent of STEM vacancies are difficult to fill, according to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, in large part due to the shortage of applicants with the necessary skills and experience.
Education undoubtedly has a key role to play in nurturing the next generation of scientists, and in fact, since 2011 there has been an unprecedented growth in the number of students choosing STEM subjects such as computer science, engineering, chemistry, physics and biology. Progress is seemingly being made. So why are we still facing a major skills shortage?
“With GCSE and A-level, the pool of candidates in any one subject gets smaller.”
When looking at the root causes, it’s worth reflecting on the UK curriculum, which requires students to narrow their subject base at the age of 16 when selecting their A-Levels. Those who enjoy arts-based subjects, or who get better grades in these disciplines at GCSE, are less likely to go on to study a science-based subject at A-level, and vice versa. Therefore, the pool of candidates in any one subject gets smaller.
In the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum however, students study a much broader range of subjects, enabling many more students to continue with STEM subjects at higher education.
Indeed, there are some interesting lessons to learn from the way in which science is taught in the IB, including the Internal Assessment (IA). A core part of the Diploma Programme, the IA is a major research project in Grade 12 where students are empowered to choose any investigation of their choice relating to each subject.
They are required to design their project independently, carry out the experiment and write it up in detail, analysing and discussing the results, what conclusions they can draw and what the wider implications may be.
“In many cases they are obscure investigations that may never have been done before.”
What amazes me, year on year, is the incredible level of innovation, deep inquiry and creative thinking that the students bring to their IA projects. Make no mistake. These are not simple experiments that you would expect to see in a school classroom. They are wide-ranging and – in many cases – obscure investigations, that may never have been done before. In short, the types of inquiry they undertake for the IA are fascinating.
This year’s Grade 12 students at Southbank International School where I teach have just submitted their initial reports, with some of the experiments including:
An investigation into the effectiveness of two solutions on treating edema (swelling) of brain tissue. The student sliced thin sections of sheep brain with edema, submerged them in the different solutions, applied a stain to the samples, took pictures of the samples through a microscope and then used a computer programme to quantify how much the cells had reduced in size.
An investigation into the effect of the age of a pineapple on the activity of bromelain, an enzyme found in pineapple that breaks down protein. The student created their own slurry from pineapple samples of different ages and then submerged pieces of chicken in the slurries. They measured the activity of the bromelain by comparing the percentage mass loss of the chicken samples in the pineapple of different ages. The student who carried out this investigation wasn’t planning to study science, and so, had they been in the UK education system studying unrelated subjects, they would never have had the chance to do that investigation and then consider a STEM programme at university.
“The student who carried out this investigation wasn’t planning to study science.”
An investigation into the effect of different wavelengths of visible light on phototropism of cress seeds. Phototropism is the ability of photosynthetic plants to bend toward a light source. The student grew cress to a height of 2cm, then put them in a dark box with a lamp shining through a hole cut in the side. The student covered the lamp with different coloured films and then measured the angle of bending that the cress experienced after a given amount of time exposed to each colour.
These are just a few of the IA projects from this year’s biology cohort. But there are many other projects being undertaken by students in physics, chemistry and environmental systems and society, all of which make for fascinating reading, and which demonstrate their ability to think critically, to inquire and to learn independently, all core principles of the IB.
There is arguably no subject in which these principles are more applicable than in science, a discipline that has experimentation and inquiry at its very core. The IB framework empowers every student to think critically and to design their IA independently, helping to nurture the next generation of scientists. This, in turn, can play an important part in addressing the skills shortage that we face today.