Nat shares this latest news from Ryde Academy. Ed
Last Friday (9th March), thirteen Year 7 Ryde Academy students attended the #NextGeneration Roadshow for girls ‘event organised by the 1851 Trust, the official charity of Land Rover BAR.
The Trust runs a number of events and activities to inspire young people, recognising the diversity of their skills and interests and the importance of STEM subjects to their futures.
Building confidence in STEM
The aim of this particular event was to increase participation, contribution and confidence of girls in STEM, introduce girls to positive and inspiring female role models and encourage them to study STEM subjects at further education.
There were a range of activities which students could take part in including Robotics, the Glam Sci stand, where they made slime and ice cream, speed networking (groups of students had seven minutes to speak to women working in STEM including satellite designers, sailors and design engineers) and build yacht sails to test in the wind tunnel.
Product design workshops
As well as all the hands on activities students also did a workshop on product design. Working in groups, they were given an everyday object which they had to improve on, decide who their target audience was and come up with a name and marketing plan.
At the end all the schools came together and were able to ask a panel of women working in STEM questions about their jobs and career paths.
As an unexpected bonus they also got the chance to see a model of the Mars Rover in action.
Not just about being good at maths and science
Mazie Callaghan age 11 said,
“Today has opened my eyes to the opportunities in the world of STEM. I thought it was all about coding, but now I know it’s also creative and not boring.”
Maths Teacher, Emily Ball said,
“This event has been amazing for our girls, and made them realise that they can get into STEM careers with different skills and interests – it’s not just about always being the best at maths or science.
“The main outcome of the day was that the girls felt inspired about STEM careers and more confident about the pathways they could take to get there.”
Fuelling enthusiasm
Bev Smith, the 1851 Trust’s Education Manager commented,
“Our day last year was a tremendous success. 100% of the students told us the day had increased their knowledge of jobs in STEM and 94% are now more interested in a career in science, technology and engineering. We are delighted that the support we received after the last day means that today was possible.
“The 165 girls we hosted here today are about to make their GCSE subject choices, and we hope that by taking part in today’s activities, we have fuelled their enthusiasm for science, technology and engineering.”
The 1851 Trust
The 1851 Trust’s activity is supporting the Government’s Year of Engineering, a campaign to celebrate the world and wonder of engineering. The Trust is keen to work with other engineering companies to deliver unique experiences for young people that will change the way they think about STEM subjects and their futures.
If you are a corporate or education partner and would like to learn more about the 1851 Trust’s work, please email [email protected]
The 1851 Trust hopes to run more inspiring Roadshows for young people throughout the year, further information on these can be found on their Website.
