On 18th June, EDT hosted a First Edition event, ‘Shaping the Future through STEM’, sponsored by Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers (WCSIM). The event took place at Glaziers Hall, London, and involved 140 girls from Years 7 & 8 across six schools including:
Central Foundation Girls' School
Sacred Heart High School
Hornsey school for girls
Notre Dame Roman Catholic Girls' School
Graveney School
Deptford Green School
EDT’s First Edition days provide quality Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STE(A)M) curriculum enrichment taster experiences for young people aged 9 to 16. The challenging but exciting day offers young people a taste of how fun STE(A)M can be, designed to widen participation by encouraging students from diverse groups to consider courses and careers in STEM.
The event was a great opportunity to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) and help inspire the next generation of female engineers. This year is the UK government’s Year of Engineering – a national campaign to increase awareness and understanding of engineering roles amongst young people, parents and teachers. INWED is just one of a number of events run in support of the campaign.
The students participated in a range of STE(A)M related activities including the first launch of the ‘Mission Rover’ activity where students code a robot to undertake the route from the lander where the rover has been delivered to the two sources of water. Teams work together to work out the best route for their rover to complete the mission, avoiding falling into the craters.
We were delighted to welcome a few inspirations speakers; Professor Isobel Pollock – Hulf OBE, Rebecca Ealden - Senior Medical Physicist at Guys and St Thomas Hospital Trust and Alice Mitchell - apprentice WCSIM currently studying at Brunel University. They inspired and encouraged the girls to achieve their dreams and showed just how rewarded a career in STE(A)M can be!
The girls volunteered to the stage to present their eco home designs in front of all the other students, teachers, engineers, scientists in the room. Well done to all the students who took part in the day, they showed great perseverance, team work, creatively and problem-solving skills as well as achieving the Industrial Cadets at Challenger level.
Prizes were awarded to teams from following schools:
Deptford Green School for performing consistently good throughout all handson activities but just didn’t manage to come 1st place in any.
Notre Dame Roman Catholic Girls' School for winning Strong Structures challenge.
Sacred Heart High School for wining Mission Rover challenge.
“Just a note to say thank you for yesterday the girls so enjoyed it and of course a winning team helps - days like yesterday make an impact on the students it is teaching in a different way. It was a great day!” - Teresa Crowley from Notre Dame Roman Catholic Girls' School
“Many thanks for a great day, we all really enjoyed it and I hope we can attend many more!” Celine Nembhard from Deptford Green School