The successful launch and enthusiastic welcome of the 2023 STEM Snapshot further strengthens Te Hononga Akoranga COMET’s belief that infographics and visualisation play a vital role in sharing data and evidence.
Presenting data in this way makes it easier for individuals to understand complex concepts and data. In this most recent case, it clearly showed the lack of equity when it comes to participation in STEM from within the education system to the employment industry.
The snapshot also highlighted where our efforts and energies needed to be focused and called for action. The “2021 case study of Tāmaki Makaurau school leavers’ progress through STEM” presents students’ achievement journey in three STEM subjects in a visually appealing, easy to follow manner. For example, the diagram clearly shows low uptake in Technology (55% of school leavers did not participate in Technology) that obviously led to fewer students archiving NCEA L3 in the subject.
It leads us to question if enough is being done to equip schools with the resources (e.g., specialised teachers, the opportunity for students to participate in technology subjects) and encourage students to consider technology as a subject in school. Earlier on, the snapshot data from the 2021 National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) had suggested that students in lower decile schools are reporting fewer opportunities to participate in certain aspects of technology/computer programming when compared top students in higher decile schools.
Data also shows that just over 10,000 students participated in either Mathematics and Statistics (4,414 students), Science (3,3401 students) and/or Technology (2,456 students) but did not attempt Level 1 or above. What can we do to prepare our students and increase their confidence to attempt NCEA?
We at Te Hononga Akoranga COMET have always used infographics to help our stakeholder increase engagement with data and evidence. This has often led to increased interest in the topic, greater understanding of the issues and, ultimately, more informed decision-making.
Get your copy of the latest STEM Snapshot here.
You can also download our newly released local board snapshots here.