STEM Day with the British Heart Foundation
Kent College partnered with the British Heart Foundation and the world’s biggest tech companies to shine spotlight on science and technology.
Kent College invited two local schools to a STEM day developed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and a range of major technology companies to encourage more primary school children to embrace science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM subjects).
The day focused on the greatness of technology – with the aim of raising awareness and interest in these vital subjects by allowing children to participate in activities and learn more about STEM. The fun, interactive and educational program was developed by BHF and technology partners Amazon, Microsoft, VMWare and Rackspace.
Over the course of a full school day the children participated in a variety of technology led activities, provided by BHF and their technology partners, including:
Getting creative with physical computing, coding Microbits with Microsoft, designing and building an intergalactic game with Rackspace through coding, lego serious play with VMware, testing Alexa capabilities with Amazon and learning how activity affects the heart with BHF.
During the day the children met role models who work in a variety of roles in technology and learned how all kinds of skills, including team work, patience, communication, understanding and creativity, are needed in the world of work, and had a glimpse of the many types of opportunity they could have by choosing to work in STEM.
Aims
The aim was to raise awareness and interest in STEM subjects.
The beneficiaries were Year 6 pupils.
Background
The day was developed by the British Heart Foundation. As the largest funder of research into heart and circulatory disease in the UK – and a key player in using innovation to improve the lives of those affected by these diseases – the BHF wants to encourage a love of science and technology in children, who we hope will grow up to be the leading scientists and innovators in the future.
This was the pilot event.
Resources
Kent College hosted the day and provided the spaces and technology to run the workshops. The school theatre, sports hall and outdoor areas were used.
The workshops were run by the technology partners - Microsoft, Amazon, VMWare and Rackspace. Teaching and non teaching staff were involved in the organisation and marketing of the event.
Teachers and non teaching staff were involved in planning the event and during the day. The marketing staff liaised with BHF to develop press information.
There was no financial contribution.
Impact
Student feedback on the day was positive with all children agreeing they had a fun and informative day.
BHF will be carrying out further feedback to assess the future development of the programme.
Pupil Involvement
50 children took part.
25 were from Kent College. All girls
25 were from 2 local primary schools. Girls and boys.
They were all Year 6, 10-11 years.
Frequency
Single event.