A recent curriculum development from the Nuffield Foundation rose to the challenge of producing a set of resources to establish STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as a curriculum focus. The result is two STEM cross-curricular projects: "Games," inspired by the London Olympics, and "Futures," a novel approach to sustainable development. Nuffield STEM projects were conceived as a response to two key national initiatives. The first of these was the launch of the National STEM programme in 2006, whose main objective was to increase the number of students progressing to study STEM subjects post-GCSE. At the same time, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) was developing a new Key Stage 3 (11-14) curriculum, which actively encouraged the kind of cross-disciplinary approach that is implied by STEM. While subsequent developments of the National Curriculum may change teachers' views of priorities, it is worth considering what is of value from these projects to inform the bigger picture of what brings about effective learning in STEM.