Engineering and technology event challenges STEM skills
Institute of Engineering & Technology event challenges STEM skills
This week, a team of STEM students in Year 8 took the trip to Bourne Academy who hosted the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) Faraday Challenge Day where there were six teams (with 5-6 STEM students per team) represented by the four schools in our Trust.
This was the first ‘non-sporting’ event where just the four schools in our Trust competed together in the same venue and the representatives from the IET commented on how organised and professional our students were so everyone could get the most out of the day.
The concept of the Faraday Challenge is for the teams to take part in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workshops to design and make a prototype based on the brief they were given and they competed against each other to win the challenge.
Students worked in their teams and have to make the decision to assigned roles such as Project Manager, Accountant and Marketing (just like The Apprentice) in order to complete the challenge. With the clearly defines roles in each group, everyone really worked well as a team and were able to contribute equally.
Students were given Faraday money to spend in the shop which was run by our Sixth Form students. Students were given points for spending wisely and accessing the ‘bargains box’.
At the end of the day, the students in each team had to prepare and then present their prototypes to the judges and peers plus answer some tough questions about their prototypes and what they would differently.
The team from Giles Academy was the winning team, it was a very close and a very tough decision on the judges part!
Well done to all the students who took part and represented their school so well. It was clear to see that all the students who took part had an amazing day and demonstrated a genuine passion and flair for engineering. We are sure that there will be future engineers as a result of taking part in this challenge.
