Marking National Manufacturing Day with Smallpeice Trust’s school STEM Challenges!
Last Thursday, to celebrate the UK’s 3rd National Manufacturing Day, the STR Group teamed up with partners Make UK and charity the Smallpeice Trust to bring STEM skills to life for some of our local students. Hosted by organisations the RNLI and Actisense, the school pupils took on the Marine Technology Challenge, sponsored by STR. Here’s how they got on…
Ferndown Middle School at Actisense
Students at Ferndown Middle School started the day with an icebreaker. Divided into teams, they were tasked with building the tallest tower that could hold a 100g weight with just 10 sheets of A4 paper. The teams had lots of different ideas, with the tallest tower reaching 60cm – great job!
Ice cracked, the students were given their project brief: To design and build a nautical craft to float and travel 1.5 metres. They needed to design a prototype and then craft the final model for testing. The teams of 6 worked together in the roles of Project Manager, Design Engineer, Finance Manager, Marketing Manager, Production Manager and Resources Manager.
The students were given a variety of tools and equipment to use. They built the prototypes with modelling foam, duct tape, masking tape, motors, propeller, batteries, terminals, switches, hot glue guns and hot wire cutters! For the construction of the final model, they could buy anything available from the Smallpeice ‘shop’, including craft wood, dowel rods, lolly sticks, coloured paper and card.
The representatives from Actisense and our own Kirsty Brooker, Operations Manager for Insignis (part of the STR Group) along with the Smallpeice team, moved amongst the teams of potential future engineers, offering support with queries, wiring problems and brainstorming ideas. Not to mention some encouragement and motivation when the final models weren’t working as they had with the modelling foam!
Once the time was up, the teams brought forward and presented the models, disclosed the costings, gave the marketing pitch, and explained the brand and logo meanings. Three vessels made it across the stretch of the water; the winner made the distance in 7 seconds and 2nd and 3rd place were decided off the budgeting and the time taken to complete the 1.5m distance. The worthy winners received a certificate to commemorate their achievement!
“The students were very engaged and motivated by the project,” noted Kirsty. “Teams excelled at being responsible for their individual roles and ensuring they met the very tight deadlines for presentation. All the students were engaged in the day, learning about engineering and the skills they’ll need in the future for a career in the STEM industries!”
St Edward’s Roman Catholic/Church of England School at the RNLI
The 11 and 12-year old pupils from St Edward’s in Poole likewise enjoyed the Marine Technology Challenge, this time with the RNLI. Following a different icebreaker where they took on (and thrashed) the instructor from the Smallpeice Trust in an intense ‘rock, paper, scissors’ showdown, the teams of students settled down to their tasks.
Exploring the concepts of design, engineering and enterprise through the interactive marine-themed STEM Day, the students were tasked with building powered boats from a range of materials, using a choice of propulsion systems, which they then had to test and pitch to the group.
Their materials again included foam blocks, hot wire machine, cutting boards and glue guns, plus the electronic elements for powering the boats such as batteries, propellors, wiring and terminal blocks. Interestingly, the teams initially came up with different designs but by the time they had tested and refined their prototypes, they all ended up looking very similar!
It was great to see all the students thoroughly engaged in the challenge throughout their time at the RNLI premises, and they all did a fantastic job. In the end though, team No.5 took the win, with each team member awarded a medal.
“Watching these young people collaborate, problem-solve and be creative was fantastic, especially seeing that by the end of the session everyone felt like engineering could be a career path for them,” observed Richard Rendell, our Business Development Director. “I very much enjoyed providing guidance to the students during the construction phase, and listening to their sales pitch at the end of the day to determine the winning team. I can’t wait to be involved in the next one!”
Looking to the future
Along with the Smallpeice Trust, MakeUK, Actisense and the RNLI, we believe that these STEM days are essential in igniting interest in engineering at an early age, to help students see where their learning will lead them, and that the skill set gained at school will be highly valuable in the future. That’s why the STR Group will continue to support and fund these STEM challenge initiatives, to help solve the skills gap of tomorrow by engaging future talent, today.
