Using the practice of statistics to design students’ experiences in STEM education

Incorporating STEM activities into the primary curriculum remains a challenge for teachers who do not have content knowledge and pedagogical expertise in all four STEM disciplines. It is, therefore, important research explores potential solutions to make STEM education accessible for all and sustainable for teachers. This chapter showcases STEM learning activities developed for a research project that was investigating the way in which students develop understanding of modelling with data within STEM contexts. The longitudinal study followed students as they progressed from Year 3 to Year 6. An aim of the project was to develop learning activities that addressed STEM outcomes whilst also putting the emphasis on developing understanding of the big ideas of statistics that included: variation, expectation, distribution, randomness, and informal inference. This chapter showcases the type of STEM learning activities that can transform learning by fostering the development of the “practice of statistics” within meaningful STEM contexts.