In-depth: Scots tech entrepreneur Ewan Kirk on his backing of pioneering Stem teaching project

Tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewan Kirk explains how he is aiming to boost numeracy skills among primary school children, helping “enrich” both their lives and society as a whole, via a new pioneering project.

The businessman, who grew up in Cumbernauld, has a CV that includes establishing and later selling science-driven quantitative investment firm Cantab Capital Partners, and co-founding the Turner Kirk Trust, a family foundation whose remit encompasses science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Stem), and early childhood development causes.

He is now providing significant funding via the Trust to the University of Glasgow, one of his alma maters, to roll out the pilot Stem course to disadvantaged schools in the west of Scotland.

Kirk, who set up the Trust with wife Patricia Turner (with both holding the academic title of doctor), said the new pilot project came about after he spoke to the University, who told him about a resource it uses to improve people’s maths skills by teaching it in a spatial way. He asked whether it could be used for children, but was told that hadn’t been tried. “I thought, ‘that sounds exactly like the kind of thing that we should be involved in’.”

And so the Stem Spatial Cognition Enhancement project – more catchily known as Stem Space – was created, setting out to provide spatial skills training to primary school children, improving their aptitude and confidence with Stem subjects.

Those behind the initiative say it brings extensive scientific research into the relationship between spatial skills – those people use to reason about physical objects and the spatial relationships among them – and Stem performance into classrooms.

A dozen schools in the Glasgow City Council area and nine from Renfrewshire Council are set to take part, and teachers have already begun training to help them deliver the programme starting in August.

Kirk – whose Cantab Capital Partners firm was in 2016 bought by Swiss asset-manager Gam for more than £160 million – said he went to one of the Stem Space training sessions, and found it “fascinating” – adding that “this really is a better way of teaching kids mathematics”.

From left: Jack Parkinson of the University of Glasgow; Aislinn Burke from Glasgow City Council; Ewan Kirk; and Professor Quintin Cutts also of the University of Glasgow. Picture: contributed.

Humbled

He also said: “One of the things that's really humbling is just how committed all these teachers are to their children, some of whom come from [very] challenging backgrounds. And what we want to do is use this project to find a way of giving kids a better chance to be numerate, to do arithmetic and mathematics better… the point of it is to make every kid better.”

The entrepreneur also said: "Being numerate, and being aware of the whole gamut of [Stem] just enriches people's lives, and makes them more able to cope with the modern world.” Additionally, those behind the project say people with high scores on spatial skills tests also tend to have better grades in Stem classes and are more likely to attain jobs in these fields.

Aislinn Burke, former teacher and member of Glasgow City Council’s Glasgow’s Improvement Challenge team and Stem Space steering committee, said: “Part of what’s exciting about this programme is that it builds on what’s already being taught, adding an additional emphasis on how those skills can be adapted to help children better understand the fundamentals of thinking about Stem.

Ewan Kirk says: 'Stem Space is a fantastic opportunity to build a transformative and scalable solution to inaccessibility in Stem.' Picture: contributed.

“It will also motivate and encourage children to work alongside each other in problem-solving, collaborating on strategies, and thinking in new ways. Those are skills that are easily transferable to all kinds of learning, which will help them as the progress through primary school and secondary school – and ultimately make them a valuable part of the workforce whatever career they choose to pursue.”

The project also says it builds on one similar delivered successfully in Australian schools, with materials from that study having been evaluated by the Glasgow researchers and adapted for local use in consultation with teachers.

Stem Space is led by Professor Quintin Cutts, head of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Computing Science Education, supported by an advisory board of experts from the field of spatial skills development and cognition.

Potential

He said: “We think [this project] has huge potential to set children up with skills which will help them get to grips with Stem subjects later in their education. What we’re really setting out to teach is a specific method of thinking – the ability to imagine complex, often abstract, shapes, structures, and relationships, and make models in our heads.

“That’s critically important to Stem subjects, where chemists can benefit from being able to mentally map intricate atomic structures, for example, or computing scientists can visualise the interplay between hardware, software, and human users when building a new program.”

Jack Parkinson, from the University’s School of Computing Science and Stem Space’s lead researcher, also commented: “The aim of this project is to help all children from every background build the foundations to support abstract thinking as they grow up. Collaborating with teachers from schools across the west of Scotland is a unique opportunity to reach children at a critical stage of their development.

“We’ve been really encouraged by how positively the training has been received by our partners so far. We’re looking forward to seeing how children benefit from this new approach in the months to come.”

Kirk, whose current roles include chairman of the management committee of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and non-executive director of defence giant BAE Systems, and previously leading Goldman Sachs’ quantitative technology group, added that he sees Stem Space as a “fantastic opportunity to build a transformative and scalable solution to inaccessibility in Stem”.

The impact of the training will be monitored before findings are reported in the first quarter of 2024, and Kirk would like to see the initiative prove its value, enabling it to then secure state funding and be rolled out more widely. “That would be success for me.”

The initiative also aims to remove barriers from marginalised groups in Stem representation, harnessing a more diverse range of viewpoints and approaches with a view to improving society, such as advances in healthcare. "Stem is at the heart of solving some of the toughest issues we face, so it’s vital that everyone is given the opportunity to study these areas and that these fields are fully representative of the population,” Kirk also said.