Homework sparks parents’ passion for STEM

By Tim Bradbury posted 14-12-2021 09:47

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Parents of school children in the UK are more likely than any other group to enjoy learning about science as adults, new research has revealed.

The national survey, conducted by Opinium Research to mark the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s European Astro Pi Challenge, concluded that parents are re-discovering a passion for science, technology and coding thanks to their children’s homework, which over half of respondents reported regularly helping with.

Motivated by a desire to support their children’s learning, nearly three in five parents said they wished they had a greater knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from school, with another 62% agreeing they would love to learn how to code.
Read the full report in Education Today HERE

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Oliver Bullock

09-01-2022 13:59

Thank you for sharing. I would totally agree and as another commenter mentioned I think Covid for all its challenges and negative impact helped bring families together.

As a Scout leader doing activities over zoom, parents really did get involved with the activities and I think had as much fun as the kids.

As a parent myself, I regularly get involved in tinkering with Microbits inspired by activities the kids have done as school through code clubs. The microbits are now a lot smaller than in my day :)

Chad Capote

21-12-2021 06:54

Thanks for sharing this excellent case study. As a parent, I can vouch for this finding. My interest in Science and Math developed after I started teaching my kids. During my school days, I hated math and loved social sciences - eventually, I ended up with a specialization in Area Studies. While discussing parents' interest in STEM, a factor that cannot be disregarded is the market and economy that nurtures this interest. Nowadays, there are so many online communities(stem.org), forums(mathforums.org), concept explainers, video explanations, homework help(Bartleby) which makes a parent's work easy. There are so many websites targeting students and parents to develop and nurture their interest in STEM. No wonder parents are interested.

Jo Montgomery

16-12-2021 09:46

My experience is that science and STEM often had the best parental engagement at primary during lockdown, and it is the topic most likely to be discussed and tinkered with at home and gets everyone working together. This is obviously not completely across the board but I think making it hands-on made it very accessible and I've had comments like "I wish we learned science like this when I was at school!"

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