Year 9 STEM Rain Water Workshop

This week The Smallpiece Trust led a STEM workshop for 60 of our Year 9 students from 9B, 9C, 9D, 9H and 9L here in school.

In small teams, students were given the challenge of designing, costing, building, testing and marketing a system to collect rainwater from a house then treat, store and pump it to plants in the garden. They took on the roles of projects managers, designers, builders, cost accountants and marketers to complete the task with a range of materials and with some very tight deadlines.

Students pondered over a range of ideas and decisions about the design, how it would work, how it could be the most sustainable and also how it would look on the outside of a house. They drew, cut, soldered and glue-gunned and some excellent models were constructed and were tested with water - many teams hitting the complex brief with aplomb.  There could only be one winner and the team that won were praised not only for the functionality of their design but also for its aesthetic appeal.

Our students got really involved, enjoyed the sessions and a whole new range of career possibilities were explored.

Thanks to Mr Pinder for organizing this event and all those teachers who helped supervise.