The SILO Project employs a distinctive methodological approach to integrate STEM education in primary schools. SILO is a recursive acronym based on Scientifically Integrated Learning Outcomes. It is recursive by referring back to itself as the overall emphasis is to find the intrinsic connections across the STEM subdisciplines, and to move away from teaching in silos where students often fail to see how their learning connects to other areas. The SILO Project was created as an open-access catalyst for change to document and present authentic connections across the disciplines of Science, Technology. Engineering and Mathematics. As The SILO Project is based in New South Wales (NSW), the learning intentions which relate to STEM education are from The Australian Curriculum and NSW Syllabus. However, moving beyond these curriculum documents, the single, overarching learning intention of The SILO Project is:
The SILO Project is a longitudinal study with an ongoing focus on STEM content creation. Accordingly, the aims of the project are:
The two research aims are further developed in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1
Research Aims
Although The SILO Project attempts to address the international focus on improving STEM education, it also seeks to address translation of research which is about bridging the gap between theory and practice. The three research questions are depicted in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2
Research Questions
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There is variability within people, groups, and contexts which is why many of the activities in the SILO project are open ended. For example, design activities are intrinsically open ended as students are free to work at their own level and can often exceed expectations when given challenging opportunities with appropriate support. Some other tasks use differentiation to vary the task according to individual needs and/or available resources. In such instances the following differentiation icon provides additional information for extension on a case-by-case basis. |
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Investigations are activities where students are guided into
experiencing various STEM phenomena. There is often a guiding
question informing an investigation. |
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Challenges can vary in terms of complexity but they revolve around
a problem or scenario which involves problem solving. |
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Activities are usually hands-on learning experiences. They are different to investigations as they usually don't have a guiding question. There are also different to challenges as they tend to have less emphasis on problem solving. Activities usually have clear instructions are often provided to assist with skill development. |
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Education games can be digital or use physical pieces and/or boards. The key difference between educational games and activities in The SILO Project is that games are competitive. |
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Debriefing sessions are usually held after an investigation,
challenge or activity to gain a shared understanding of the main
learning objectives. |
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Questions are posed to the class at various times to gauge
understanding or generate discussion. |
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Discussions are usually more open ended than questions. |
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The activities and experiments in The SILO Project are not considered to be high risk. Whenever there are safety considerations due to working with sharp objects, water, soil, chemicals, mains electricity, or moving objects, risk assessment documentation provides additional information linked to the following icon on a case-by-case basis. None of the risk assessment information is contrary to common sense or basic duty of care. |
The idea to create 28 STEM units for the primary years started back in 2020 when Brendan Jacobs lived and worked in North Queensland. Although the Covid pandemic had caused some restrictions to education, North Queensland was not as badly impacted as many other regions in Australia so some research visits to schools were still possible. When Brendan moved to New South Wales (NSW) towards the end of 2021, new ethics approvals were required at both the NSW Department of Education and University level. A strategic change to the new ethics approvals was that the participants would be the researchers and teachers, not the students. This meant that all students could be involved in the various activities but without their learning being measured or documented directly. Instead, a collaborative approach between researchers and teachers enabled the various lessons with the 28 STEM units to evolve based on classroom observations and discussions but without the additional requirement of documenting student achievement.
A new collaborative model emerged where teachers could critique the various elements of the lessons using their professional judgement. Any changes could then be implemented into the SILO website to facilitate rapid prototyping through incremental improvement. This methodological innovation led to the creation of new qualitative research methodology called Provisional Multimodal Research (PMR). More details about PMR can be found on the Research Methodology page.
The SILO Project underwent significant development during a four-month collaboration between Brendan Jacobs and Solina Quinton in 2024. Some highlights from this collaboration are detailed in a blog post titled For the love of STEM by Hannah Collett.
During a sabbatical from the University of New England in 2025, Brendan travelled to Canada and the USA where he collaborated with interested teachers and academics from various schools and universities. In 2026 he continues to collaborate on The SILO Project using the provisional multimodal research methodology where improvements to the 28 STEM units and website are implemented on a daily basis.
A recent blog post by Hannah Collett titled Education research paves new approach in digital humanities, reports on how digital scholarship continues to expand the possibilities for innovation in research.
The SILO Project has ethics approval from the University of New England (HE22-058) and the NSW Department of Education (SERAP 2022071).
The chief investigator for The SILO Project is Associate Professor Brendan Jacobs, Head of Department STEM Education, University of New England. The SILO Project thrives on incremental improvement so constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. Please contact Brendan via email at bjacobs7@une.edu.au to share your thoughts and recommendations.
