The Australian Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has funded a rollout of the STELR (Science and Technology Education Leveraging Relevance) Stage One Project to 150 secondary schools in 2010. Participating schools will receive, at no cost, curriculum materials, class sets of supporting laboratory equipment, two days of professional development training for two teachers (including teacher replacement funding) and website, online and technical support. This article outlines the aims, philosophy and methods of the STELR project and provides a summary of the Deakin University evaluation of the proof-of-concept trial that was carried out in four Victorian schools in 2008. (Contains 4 figures.)