Award Winning STEM Punks Empowers Kids With 21st Century Skills
Industry: Education
The Brisbane based company, founded by wife and husband team Fiona and Michael Holmstrom, are STEM educators who educate children for a lifetime. Their online programs help children develop skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to prepare them for a future where they can make a difference.
Australia (PRUnderground) February 17th, 2021
Australian education company STEM Punks won the 2021 BIG Innovation Awards; one of only 52 organisations worldwide to receive the award and the only education company for their mission “inspiring tomorrow’s innovators”.
The Brisbane based company, founded by wife and husband team Fiona and Michael Holmstrom, are STEM educators who educate children for a lifetime. Their online programs help children develop skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to prepare them for a future where they can make a difference.
“STEM Punks offers curriculum-aligned courses in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) for school students that are developed and delivered by teachers and leading innovators,” Fiona said.
“We teach kids about 21st Century skills by enabling a mindset of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. During COVID, we grew our audience by over 450% organically by providing great quality content and high quality production value, live content, broadcast live and free to the world.
“We use a framework called Design Thinking, which utilises a design process to solve real world problems. By introducing this at an early age, it becomes more of a mindset than a process. This is very important for kids to understand early to enable them to solve more complex problems later in life.”
Maria Jimene, Chief Operating Officer of the Business Intelligence Group, the US company that runs the awards, said the BIG Innovation Awards recognise organisations and people who bring new ideas to life.
“Whether that idea is big or small, these ideas change the way we experience the world. The BIG Innovation Awards recognize every innovation that our judges deem worthy of recognition,” she said.
“STEM Punks provides online STEM education to teachers and students worldwide, emphasising innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. More than ever, the global society relies on innovation to help progress humanity and make our lives more productive, healthy, and comfortable.
“We are thrilled to be honouring STEM Punks as they are one of the organizations leading this charge and helping humanity progress.”
Organizations from across the globe submitted their recent innovations for consideration in the BIG Innovation Awards. Nominations were then judged by a select group of business leaders and executives who volunteer their time and expertise to score submissions.
While it is an international player in education innovation, STEM Punks believes in the power of community and giving back and are releasing a number of STEM scholarships and initiatives to underrepresented communities across Australia and the world this year.
The ‘STEM Sisters’ Project provides a pathway for girls in High Schools across Australia to gain new STEM Skills and explore future careers in STEM, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Leadership. STEM Punks also supports the LING Project in Ghana which works as a not-for-profit to build digital literacy for girls and help schools and communities to access the tools, training, and support they need to be more effective.
Fiona said STEM Punks believe helping children develop skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics will prepare them for a future where they can make a difference.
“Making STEM accessible to everyone has always been important to us. During COVID-19 we gave back by streaming free LIVE broadcasts that went all over the world. We want to keep that momentum going,” she said.
“We want to keep spreading the message that STEM is a fundamental part of education in the 21st Century and that no child should miss out. Diversity and inclusivity is important to us, so we want to honour the students who particularly need STEM but may not have the access or resources due to their location, socio-economic status, race, ability or gender.
“Education is for everyone, not just for the chosen few. Our classes focus on 21st Century skills, Design Thinking and STEM topics such as robots, drones, science, AR & VR plus much more.”
STEM Punks has also just been named as a finalist in another international award, the UK based Think Global awards, in two categories; Brand of the Year, and Best Education & eLearning company.
About STEM Punks
STEM Punks mission is to ”Inspire Tomorrow’s Innovators”, and teaches programs to children to equip them with a mindset based on innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship to enable 21st century learning. STEM Punks offers curriculum-aligned courses in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) for school students that are developed and delivered by teachers and leading innovators. STEM Punks teaches kids 21st century skills including problem solving, empathy, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, adaptability, resilience, and perseverance. STEM Punks classes are online and in person for kids at home, and teachers in schools.
