Rocket Design with Primary Pupils

December 2018

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This month, we were joined in school by around 80 local primary school pupils in Years 5 and 6 for an exciting three-part STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) Challenge.

Five years ago, we made a commitment to driving forward STEM subjects, and since then we have organised a host of inspiring activities, special events and challenges, and taken part in a number of competitions at both a regional and national level with great success.

We are delighted to announce that this year we have received over £5000 worth of funding through the Engineering Education Grant Scheme (EEGS). This organisation provides support for UK based educational projects that increase engineering knowledge in young people. The funding has been used to support a fun primary school project designed and organised by our STEM Co-ordinators, Miss Ford and Miss Lennon. The project challenges pupils to develop their skills in engineering by designing and building a rocket that can travel to Mars.

The first part of the challenge saw visiting pupils working in groups to come up with ideas for an effective rocket; they needed to consider how they could protect it from the heat, the aerodynamics of the rocket and how they would survive on Mars once they arrived. Students, assisted and guided by eight of our Sixth Form students, then designed their rocket using their findings and the results were launched to see which team had created the best one based on style, insulation and height.

Activities such as these are an excellent way for us to share our facilities, resources and the specialist knowledge of our Teachers with schools in our local community. It was clear that pupils had thoroughly enjoyed the event and had benefitted greatly from the experience overall. Two further follow-up events are scheduled for January 16th and 23rd.