STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths

Tuesday was our forensic science experience with Sci-High. Megan told us “I had a fun time on Tuesday working on a crime scene. We had to figure out how the janitor at our school was killed and who did it. We used many forensic tools to help us work out who did it including evidence bags of clothes, foot prints found at the crime scene, fingerprint identification and handwriting identification. The highlight of the day was when I learned that I was a "freak" due to my abnormal fingerprints found out through fingerprinting”. Jon Bates from Sci-High wrote to say that our pupils "contributed very impressively to the events with energy, skilful practical work, and lots of ideas and good humour."

Helena from Tomorrow’s Engineers visited us on Wednesday to teach us about renewable and non-renewable energy, and we raced electric cars which the pupils had designed and made themselves. “I really enjoyed the Electric Car Workshop as it was fun to discover the ways to make the car faster and work together to make the final product", Peter told us. Michael added “The day was not only informative in the first part, but really fun and practical in the second. It was a perfect blend of the Engineering/Technology side of STEM.”

Thursday was our Forces of Flight day, where the STEAM team built a scale model of a Hawker Hurricane, and not only saw, but got to sit in the cockpit of a Rans Coyote plane. Reya said the experience was “very exciting and fun. I loved the plane that they brought into school and taught us about all the forces it needed in order to fly. I found the paper plane races quite fun too. We helped set up a mini prototype of a Hawker Hurricane used in the World War (1:3 scale model). We learned more about laws and forces and at the end we had a competition which involved us making some prototypes and testing them. There were 3 different types of planes that our group made: hoop gliders, rockets and more paper planes. It was an extremely enjoyable day and I absolutely loved it."

As a conclusion to the week, on Friday graphic designer Katie Charleston gave a presentation about origami in engineering and the importance of including art and design in the conversation, turning STEM to STEAM. The team then had the opportunity to put what they had learnt about evaporation and solar power with a swim at the open air pool in Cirencester!

By the end of the week, 85% of the pupils who took part were interested in pursuing a STEAM career, which is double the amount from prior to this brilliant Enrichment Week.

Our thanks to our visitors during Enrichment Week: Sci-High, Tomorrow's Engineers, Sci-Hi and Yes Flyers.