A group of 12 BES science enthusiasts from Year 9 were given the fantastic opportunity to take part in a Science and Technology Challenge Day held at Shrewsbury College yesterday.
The programme for the event was designed to raise enthusiasm for STEM subjects, with the aim of encouraging more young people to consider studying them at college and university.
Each student took part in three out of four hands-on activities to give them an insight into some of the topics they could go on to study later on their education journey.
These included robotics, which involved building and programming a Lego Mindstorm EV3 robot to navigate a series of obstacles around a course, and medical diagnostics, where they were tasked with diagnosing a ‘patient’ and testing for diabetes.
Another of the tasks was to design and construct a simple battery-powered vehicle, paying particular attention to power transmission, speed and torque. The cars were then put through their paces as each vehicle was timed between starting and finishing lines.
The fourth option was an E-FIT challenge where, after watching a simulated crime, students got to use the latest facial recognition software to create a computer image of the ‘criminal’, and understand the problems associated with memory and facial recognition.
Head of Science, Ms Stanley, commented: “The trip was a great success and everyone got a lot out of the day. The students were completely engaged in what they were learning and also very driven to win the challenges.”
“It was good to see them pick up lots of new skills and get to try out specialist equipment and software they ordinarily wouldn’t have the chance to use. I’ll definitely be looking out for more days like this.”
