STEM Day inspires Year 9 about future careers and aspirations
STEM Day inspires Year 9 about future careers and aspirations
To inspire our Year 9 students to explore the STEM areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – we held a whole day of activities delivered by external visitors to highlight the variety of career paths and skills needed to work in these industries.
At our STEM Day, students had the opportunity to meet local companies such as Zoolab, Bakkavor and Healthy Streets plus learn about AI, cyber-security, engineering, product design and production. There was even a rocket challenge where students worked in groups to see how far they could launch their own rocket.
There was much excitement in the Zoolab presentation on Biomimicry as students learnt about the superpowers of the animal world and how nature has inspired engineers by developing products on their unique properties. Students got to meet ‘Caspar the Snake’, ‘Honey the Gecko’, ‘Jarvis the Cockroach’ and ‘Elvis the Tarantula’, whilst learning about the special characteristics and they products they helped develop.
Students learnt there is so much more involved to the products on the supermarket shelves with an interactive workshop from Bakkavor as they firstly come up with ideas for new innovative food products and then set up production lines and worked out how small changes can make them more effective with higher productivity.
Many of the STEM jobs our students might have in the future do not yet even exist with how fast technology is developing, which is why the sessions on artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber-security were especially eye-opening as students can see how they will be involved in these technological developments.
Miss Davis, Teacher of Science who organised the event said “This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to gain an insight into areas they may not have considered as STEM roles and show them routes into these careers. The students were brilliant throughout the sessions, and especially enjoyed getting to see a snake, gecko and spider in the Biomimicry session!”