Seven Years of Linking Scottish Schools and Industry with SSTN

Abstract

The Scottish Science and Technology Network (SSTN) is a major collaboration between Careers Scotland and Scottish industry to promote science and technology via an on‑line and integrated learning programme. An initial two‑ year pilot project has grown considerably and has now been running for over 7 years. The SSTN programme is a web‑ based application that supports teachers with automatic identification of learning resources, course planning tools, classroom‑based delivery (within the 5‑14 curriculum) and mentoring support. This paper presents a summary of this project and examples of typical usage scenarios. We present our project findings from this 7 year programme and details of our further development plans. Findings presented include lessons learnt, our best practice guidelines, effective user interface design for learning, integration learning resources and strategies for hiding complexity.