STEM Festival

The inaugural STAHS STEMFest was launched to inspire and engage pupils and children in the local community in STEM, an industry that remains male-dominated.

It also allowed children the opportunity to see and use different equipment that they might not otherwise have access to, and experience the application of STEM knowledge in the real world.

Aims

To inspire and engage pupils in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) and related careers through a festival day of relevant activities. The STEM subjects and projects that were designed for the festival aimed to develop creative thinking and innovation skills, as well as collaboration and problem-solving.

Background

The inspiration behind the STEMFest was to showcase the range of activities, skills and opportunities that STEM has to offer, to encourage awareness of the four different disciplines to both pupils and children in the local community.

Resources

A range of resources were provided by the School for the event from classrooms and science labs through to microscopes and robots for specific activities.

The planning for the event took place over several months, with input from a wider range of teaching and support staff.

Impact

Over 700 people from the local community attended and benefitted from the festival day. A number of school parents in STEM careers shared their expertise, running highly engaging and interactive activities, which further enhanced the sense of community.

An attendee (aged 7) said: "I loved the STEMfest because it was really fun and I got to try things I had never experienced before, like the virtual reality goggles and surgical stitching in the medics zone."

A parent said: "We had a wonderful time at the STEM festival. We especially enjoyed the birds of prey, and discovering virtual reality! We are hoping it will all happen again next year!"