Future You - STEM Worlds
Students discover how STEM skills are used in many different careers by running virtual STEM companies, hiring diverse teams, exploring science concepts, and meeting Future You Pathfinders. Through gameplay, students see that people with different interests, strengths, and backgrounds all have a place in STEM, helping them build confidence that STEM belongs to everyone – including them.
Year levels
Years 3–6
Duration
7 lessons (~45 min each) per module
Submissions
Optional
What students do
Students build their understanding of science and STEM careers through a mix of digital lessons, gameplay, data analysis, reflection, and optional team challenges.
- Play interactive games where they run virtual STEM companies, hire staff, train teams, upgrade workplaces, and watch their company grow based on the decisions they make
- Explore how biology, chemistry, physics, and earth and space concepts are used by people working in real STEM careers
- Meet diverse STEM professionals from the Future You Pathfinder network and learn about different pathways into STEM
- Reflect on their own interests, strengths, and ideas about who belongs in STEM
- Analyse gameplay data to identify patterns, understand what worked (and what didn’t), and make evidence-based decisions
- Build confidence in using STEM skills and discover that STEM can be creative, collaborative, and relevant to many different careers
- Apply their learning through an optional hands-on team challenge
The science behind it
Future You – STEM Worlds gives students a practical way to explore how science concepts are used by people working in a wide range of STEM careers.
The modules are aligned to the Australian Curriculum v9.0 years 3–6 science strands and collectively cover:
Biological sciences: exploring living things, life cycles, habitats, food chains, adaptations, and ecosystems.
Chemical sciences: investigating materials, changes of state, particles, and reversible and irreversible changes.
Physical sciences: examining forces, energy, electricity, and engineering concepts.
Earth and space sciences: investigating soils, rocks, minerals, water, weathering, erosion, and the movement of Earth and other planets.
Future You – STEM Worlds also supports students to develop scientific thinking skills including data literacy, evidence-based reasoning, problem-solving, scientific communication, and confidence that STEM skills can be used by everyone in many different careers.
Access Lessons via the Arludo Science Portal
After registering, create your free teacher account at teach.arludo.com to access all of the Future You - STEM Worlds modules and share lesson links with your class.
Get started freeHow Future You - STEM Worlds Works
Explore
Students explore science concepts, meet STEM professionals, and see how the science they’re learning in class is used in many different STEM careers.
Play
Students run virtual STEM companies, make decisions, and watch their workplaces grow based on who they hire, train, and support.
Belong
Students reflect on their own interests, strengths, and future pathways, helping them see that STEM is creative, collaborative, and for everyone.
About Future You
Future You is a free program that helps young people build their interest, confidence, and sense of belonging in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through curriculum-aligned resources and real-world role models, Future You supports educators to connect classroom learning to exciting careers and everyday life. By showcasing diverse STEM professionals and pathways, Future You aims to challenge stereotypes about who belongs in STEM and help students discover that STEM skills can be creative, collaborative, and used in many different careers. When students see people like themselves using STEM to solve problems, make discoveries, and improve the world around them, they can begin to imagine STEM as part of their own future.
Find out more about Future You
Why Future You - STEM Worlds?
Future You – STEM Worlds was designed to help students aged 8–12 discover that STEM is not just something for the classroom – it is a set of skills used by people in many different careers every day. Through games, digital lessons, career exploration, and team challenges, students begin to understand that STEM skills can help people solve problems, think creatively, make tasks easier and more efficient, and contribute to meaningful work in fields they may never have considered before. Students are introduced to diverse STEM professionals from the Future You Pathfinder network and explore a range of career pathways connected to biology, chemistry, physics, and earth and space science. Along the way, students are encouraged to reflect on their own interests, strengths, and aspirations, helping them see that there is no single "type" of person who works in STEM. By connecting science concepts in the classroom to real jobs and real people, Future You – STEM Worlds aims to broaden students' ideas about what STEM looks like in practice, challenge stereotypes about who belongs in STEM, and build confidence that STEM skills belong to everyone – including them.
- 100% free
- Connects science learning to real world STEM careers
- Challenges stereotypes about who belongs in STEM
Meet the Future You Pathfinders
Future You Pathfinders are diverse STEM professionals who use their skills to solve problems, help people, protect the environment, design new technologies, and make the world a better place. Throughout STEM Worlds, students meet real Pathfinders working in exciting STEM careers and discover that there is no single pathway into STEM. From aerospace engineering and wildlife conservation to sustainable food production and software engineering, Pathfinders help students connect classroom science to real jobs and see that STEM can be creative, collaborative, and for everyone.
Meet the Future You PathfindersAustralian Curriculum Links
AC9S3U03 identify sources of heat energy and examine how temperature changes when heat energy is transferred from one object to another
AC9S4U03 identify how forces can be exerted by one object on another and investigate the effect of frictional, gravitational and magnetic forces on the motion of objects
AC9S5U03 identify sources of light, recognise that light travels in a straight path and describe how shadows are formed and light can be reflected and refracted
AC9S6U03 investigate the transfer and transformation of energy in electrical circuits, including the role of circuit components, insulators and conductors