Young girls from local secondary schools attended a Girls in STEM event at Bracknell and Wokingham College on Thursday 13 March.
Groups of pupils from years 7-10 from The Emmbrook School, The Holt School and St Crispin’s School attended the one-day event at the Church Road campus.
Representatives from AWE, Mace, Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) and Thames Valley Police attended the event, presented inspirational talks and ran workshops to give the pupils a glimpse of the opportunities open to them if they choose to pursue a career in STEM.
During the Mace workshop, after an introductory presentation, pupils were split into groups and asked to build towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows, which were 1m high and could stand unsupported. Pupils were encouraged to take on the roles of Programme Manager, Designer Authority, Supply Chain Manager and Commercial Manager and asked to keep to a budget.
In the RSSL workshop, after a presentation about the company and each of the representatives’ roles ad career journeys, pupils worked in groups of five to work out from the information they were given what had made a dog sick. Students could choose different scientific tests to help them determine the answer.
While in the AWE workshop, each representative talked about their career journey and gave an introductory talk about AWE. Afterwards, pupils were put into groups of four and asked to build a catapult out of wooden sticks, elastic bands and bamboo spoons. Once built, the pupils competed against each other to see whose catapult could fire a tiddlywink the furthest.
Meanwhile in the Thames Valley Police workshop, pupils took part in various activities to help them learn about different types of digital and cybercrime and learn how to protect themselves. Pupils also got to find out about different teams in the police and look at the different body armour that the police wear to protect themselves when on duty in different situations.
Praneetha, a year 10 pupil from The Emmbrook School, said “I really liked the event because I got to learn a lot of information about STEM and it helped to broaden my understanding.
“It helped me to have thoughts about my future and what kind of career I would like to go into. At first, I was thinking about computing but now I’m thinking about going into the medical side.”
Jael Santana, Maths Teacher at The Emmbrook School, said: “I liked that it was engaging and interactive, in that in each of the sessions the girls something to do after a talk to get their minds going about the possible careers and where it comes in. In the first session, they spoke about their own journeys from what they did for GCSEs, A Levels and university, which was really good because at this age it gets them thinking about their own trajectory.
“The experience of girls in STEM is good because in so many of these STEM jobs it’s so male dominated so trying to nurture that interest in the girls from this age is so important. I’ve walked around to my group and asked if they enjoyed it and they did so that hands-on experience has got them thinking their own courses and what they engage with.”
Alice Newman, Early Careers Manager at RSSL, said: “Our session worked well for the pupils. We asked them to do handouts, and we were looking at what they’d written down afterwards and it was clear that they’d taken something in, made notes and understood what we’d said.
“I hope that it has given them an insight into different roles that are available in science and industry that they didn’t know existed before.”
Trudy Rudge, School Partner Team Leader at Activate Learning, said: “I think the event went really well. All the pupils really engaged, the staff loved it and the employers were really good. There was lots of interaction.
“I think it will help to not only inspire the young ladies to get into STEM subjects for their options for their GCSE and vocational courses, but it’s also opened their eyes to college life and to some of the incredible facilities at Bracknell and Wokingham College.”
Find out more about Science, Engineering, IT and Computing, A Level and GCSE courses available at Bracknell and Wokingham College or contact Activate Learning on 0800 612 6008.
