OpenSTEM develops and delivers practical and hands-on educational resources and complete programs that help students engage with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics concepts.

OpenSTEM Pty Ltd is based in Brisbane (QLD, Australia) and was founded by Arjen Lentz and Dr Claire Reeler, working with educators, students, academics and other professionals.

See who is at OpenSTEM, and other awesome people that help us.

Why

Visionary author Arthur C. Clarke said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  We are now surrounded by technology, and our children are growing up regarding cars, microwaves, DVD players, computers, the Internet and smart phones as perfectly normal, but few of us know how they work.  Naturally we have a limited amount of time and need to prioritise, but on the other hand, it’s not really magic.  For proper understanding and developing vision for the future, it is also key that we know how we got here (history) and where we are in the world (geography),

It is important to have at least a basic insight into these topics, and OpenSTEM exists to support students, teachers and parents with a wide variety of programs and resources to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. For our curious students, it’s important to know it’s all accessible.

What

OpenSTEM creates resources and complete programs for use in schools and other educational settings.  We focus on enabling students in their inquiry based learning, rather than simply hopping by with an experience.

We develop materials from individual workshops and multi-week projects, to complete curriculum implementations for a particular subject and year level.

Our materials implement the Australian Curriculum (inclusing assessment) and the state-level curricula, but expanded and generally cross-curricular: we integrate the relevant different subjects as experienced in the real world, as well as cater for multi-year level classrooms.

Some materials are intended for delivery by OpenSTEM facilitators with specialised subject-matter skills and knowledge, others are suitable for independent use by teachers and other educators.

We also develop Individual Curriculum Plans (ICPs), using the broad scope of the National Curriculum to provide advanced students with additional opportunities.

How

When a magician shows how a particular trick is done, it may not quite be magic any more, but it can still be awesomely cool. Similarly, OpenSTEM doesn’t take away the magic, but rather provides sufficient insight, at the appropriate level, to enable further exploration.

Since the magicians behind the technology curtain are indeed people just like us, many of our children will need to make these topics their profession. And the good news is that we just need to enable them to explore. Then, there’s no stopping them!

While fitting within the school curriculum, we take an integrated approach: insights and skills combine and apply in the world around us. When we cook a recipe, maths is involved, as well as chemistry and general science. And that’s great because quite often kids wonder “why do we need to learn this?” Through our hands-on projects, we also specifically cater for tactile and kinaesthetic learners as well as all other learning styles.

Open

OpenSTEM understands that schools and families have financial constraints. We licence/sell resources we produce, at a reasonable price.

Please see our licensing and subscription pricing pages for more details. If you have any questions, do Contact Us!

We encourage suggestions, feedback and contributions. Through every project event we also learn more, and put this back into the materials. And if you are looking for a project that addresses particular curriculum topics, ask us to explore!