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Teaching young people how to be confident researchers can set them up for success in virtually any field, but especially those studying STEM subjects, says Marcus-AlexanderNeil Why good research skills are crucial up for future success in the workplace. The ability to effectively research is a vital skill for young people entering the world of work, whether it be preparing for job applications and interviews, generating statistics or pursuing one of the many career paths in engineering, such as electrical or chemical engineering. But let’s be honest, no matter how useful a skill it is, young people can Scenario-based learning This scenario-based learning is fundamental to The Bright Ideas Challenge – Shell’s free national schools’ competition for 11- to 14-year-olds. The competition invites students to demonstrate their creativity, their STEM knowledge and, critically, their research skills in creating innovative solutions to various sustainability issues that cities will be facing by 2050. The learning objectives of the Bright Ideas Challenge are mapped to careers frameworks in England, Scotland and Wales to help students develop vital employability skills. Teachers across the UK have in turn been able to use the important and topical issues raised by the competition to inspire students to pursue careers in science and engineering, and further develop their STEM research skills. The not-for-profit careers organisation EngineeringUK recently found that just 55% of adults realised that find research tasks to be a bit, well, dull. If, however, you set research tasks based on real world problems that students can relate to – from food waste and technological change to solar power – you’ll be providing a platform for them to engage with issues they are passionate about in a way that can significantly boost their research skills. 76 teachwire.net/secondary M ost students will be very familiar with research-based tasks, simply from spending time in the classroom. Often set as homework or for coursework aimed at helping them discover gems of information for themselves, many students may not appreciate how, in setting them such tasks, their teachers are setting them FINDING ATHEME The difficult part of starting a research project can often be choosing a theme that students will find both challenging and engaging. Renewable energy is a theme that students have often tackled when entering The Bright Ideas Challenge, as it’s a broad issue that allows students in the same class to look at different aspects of sustainability without overlapping. The 2019 national champions focused their Bright Idea around a renewable energy solution they named ‘Aqua Bine’, which was designed to capture the hydropower produced by household taps, store it as energy and use it to power anything from personal devices to cars. Other key renewable topics worth researching might include solar power, tidal energy, affordable energy, future forms of power generation, how we should approach our future energy mix, ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, wind turbines and geothermal energy.