This document discusses promoting excellence in STEM education through enrichment programs. It describes two such programs: the Junior College Utrecht program, a collaboration between Utrecht University and 27 schools offering research modules to talented students, and the Willem van Oranje College program offering challenging projects. It provides an example JCU module on membranes and antibiotic resistance that uses inquiry-based learning. The document recommends differentiating instruction and open-ended assignments to challenge excellent students, and cooperating with other teachers and external experts to develop high-quality materials for excellence programs.

1. Promoting excellence in STEM education
Junior College Utrecht
Willem van Oranje College Waalwijk
Andrea van Bruggen- van der Lugt
Educational Developer
Chemistry Teacher

2. Outline
• WHY excellence in STEM education?
• HOW? Two example excellence programmes:
– Junior College Utrecht (JCU - UU and 27 schools)
– My school: Willem van Oranje College (WvO)
• WHAT?
- an example JCU- module: Membranes
- an example WvO- Business and Research College
• What can you do?

3. Why promoting
excellence?
Talented students
– are willing and able do more than the regular
curriculum
– are at risk to lose motivation (‘boring lessons’)
– are at risk to develop inadequate study habits
(tendency towards ‘mediocrity’)
– can positively influence their classmates
Education should be challenging and adapted to students
needs and capacities - differentiation

4. Why promoting STEM
education?
• STEM is challenging
• Need for more students and professionals in STEM
• Many STEM-talented students lose interest during
secondary education
• In the Netherlands:
– The government promotes STEM
– Science faculties are interested to cooperate with schools
– In some schools: science departments take the lead in
talent development, other subjects follow

5. How : by
enrichment programmes
To selected students
• Enrichment in the school
- Taught by interested school teachers
e.g. Willem van Oranje College
• Enrichment in university
– Meeting in university
– Taught by university teachers
– Students miss some lessons at school
e.g. Junior College Utrecht

6. HOW 1 : Excellence
programme at school
Excellence programme (WvO)
Challenging projects in
Business & Research College
www.20-80learning.nl
- replacing regular lessons for excellence programme
- needs compacting of regular lessons
- needs planning and organisation by students
- open-ended assignments
- to selected students

7. Dissemination in
the school
 Changing the learning
culture in the school

8. Excellence programme at
WvO
- inside school
- lectures by e.g. former students, teachers
- open-ended assignments for differentiation
www.betadifferentiatie.nl (designed by JCU)
- challenging projects
- travelling labs at school
- scientific olympiads
- outside school
- masterclasses and webclasses at universities
- excursions to universities and companies – DSM, ASML
and KPMG

9. • Foto’s van mijn
schoolproject

10. How 2: Excellence
programme at university
Excellence programme (JCU)
An initiative of Utrecht University (UU)
and 27 secondary schools
- To offer challenging science education to talented
17–18 year-old students in an academic
environment (U- talent Academy)

11. The network model of
JCU
The JCU network
»
Output:
-STEM excellence
programmes + modules
for nation wide
dissemination
- teacher
professionalization
programme for
promoting excellence in
STEM education

12. U-Talent Academy
for 150 selected talented studentes
of 27 secondary partnerschools
2 years 2 days a month
Program:
-Introduction – community building
-Research oriented modules
-Excursion – CERN (Geneve) / Research institutes (Grenoble)
-Thesis in cooperation with researchers

13. U-Talent Academy
for 150 selected talented studentes
of 27 secondary partnerschools
2 years 2 days a month
Program:
-Introduction – community building
-Research oriented modules
-Excursion – CERN (Geneve) / Research institutes (Grenoble)
-Thesis in cooperation with researchers

14. By who: teachers and
scientists
• Scientists have few experience in education
innovation
• Teachers have few knowledge of recent
developments in science research
Cooperation between teachers and scientists
is the key of the development of high-grade
lesson materials

15. The ‘Membrane’ module
Example of a research oriented module (JCU):
Membranes as target for antibiotics
(for grade 11 / age 17)
Cooperation between
- JCU
- Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics,
Department of Chemistry,
University of Utrecht

16. Moments of choice

17. Working in a community

18. Finshing with a product
Writing a
scientific report

19. Inquiry based learning
high grade lesson materials
- Making vesicles of phospholipids as a
model of membranes
- Reconstruction of the discovery of
the phospholipids bilayer of
membranes
- Study of the influence of antibiotics
on the growth of bacteria
- Determination of the composition of
the different phospholipids in
bacteria and yeast by thin layer
chromatography (TLC).

20. Inquiry based learning

21. Characteristics of
JCU modules
• Connected to research at University of Utrecht
• Moments of choice
- Repetition, Deepening and Extending,
Enrichment
- Subjects
- Biology/ Chemistry
- Physics / Mathematics
• Finishing with a product
(poster, presentation, model, report….)
• Inquiry- based learning

22. What can you do?
Recommendations
Excellent students needs to be challenged
• Differentiation using excellence programmes
– Start in your own classroom, but also outside the
classroom
– Use open ended assignments, e.g. from www.jcu.nl
(examples in English)
– Cooperate with teachers from the own and other
schools, by exchange of best practice in excellence
programmes
– Cooperation with external expertise is the key for
development of high grade lesson materials for an
excellence programme

23. a.w.vanBruggen-vanderLugt@uu.nl
a.w.vanbruggen@wvoranje.nl

25. Effect of promoting excellence
in STEM education