STEM Club
The members of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) club have now started to focus on a variety of national competitions and girls from Year 7-10 have been attending each week in order to research ideas that solve specific problems. The girls in Year 7 are looking into solutions to the global energy crisis and are considering what the cities of 2050 will look like. This is all part of the competition Bright Ideas challenge; the winners of which will win £5000 for their school as well as a VIP STEM experience for the team. So far, they have been testing different electronic circuits using LEDs and buzzers, to see how these can be powered using renewable sources such as solar panels. They have also started to research problems facing the cities of the future such as pollution, energy efficiency, food shortage and are already beginning to consider some potential solutions that they could develop into a final idea for the competition. Year 8 and 9 have been programming a robot as part of the ‘Tomorrow’s Engineers’ robotics challenge. The team will have to design, build and test their robot to complete a series of tasks that link to real world engineering problems such as how to deliver humanitarian aid. As well as this, they will have to create a presentation based on the title ‘How could engineers help futureproof the world?’ The girls in Year 10 are also starting the research phase of another national competition, ‘Teen Tech’. As the competition explains, ‘Are you an innovator? Do you have an idea which could make life easier, simpler or better? We want you to use your imagination to think creatively. This is a chance to ask ‘what if?’ or even build a fun example of what this might look like.’ The students are again looking into possible solutions to real world problems and aim to use STEM to come up with original and exiting ideas. We look forward to seeing the final projects as they enter the regional phase of each competition in the spring term.
Mrs Gornall, Technology Department
