Category: Schools

November is Global Month of Play – Real Play Coalition

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The Real Play Coalition was formed in 2018 by IKEA, The LEGO Foundation, Unilever’s Persil, OMO and Surf Excel, and National Geographic. This November, they have introduced the Global Month of Play to “help combat the erosion of play”.

The website provides a free newsletter and activity finder and lots of play-based activities giving children the opportunity to grow and learn through play.

November’s Global Month of Play will see a programme of activities aimed at families, schools and communities to excite and engage children in their everyday lives. The Real Play Coalition will reach over 3 million children in more than 100 countries, with activities taking place in across 26,000 classrooms, with the message that “play is rocket fuel for children’s development”.

IKEA are inviting everyone to join extra playful activities in more than 400 IKEA stores around the world as part of their Let’s Play for Change campaign, with the message that play is vital for all of us, everywhere, every day. The IKEA activities can be followed on #letsplayforchange and #FablerBjorn.

The Lego Foundation and LEGO Group are celebrating UNICEF’s Universal Children’s Day (#worldchildrensday) on 20th November through their Build the Change events. Children in selected locations in Mexico, the UK, China, South Africa and Denmark have been invited to use LEGO® bricks to build their dream school, in which learning through play and creativity are part of everything they do. The LEGO Foundation will hand a selection of insights, ideas and learning from the project to world leaders at the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 2019.

Unilever’s Persil, OMO and Surf Excel are supporting Outdoor Classroom Day, a global campaign led by NGO Project Dirt to inspire and celebrate outdoor learning and play. Thousands of schools across the globe took their lessons outside and prioritised playtime on 1st November. Over 3 million children across 26,000 classrooms joined in 2018. Parents and teachers can sign up at www.outdoorclassroomday.com.

National Geographic are producing a series of videos for the Real Play Coalition, titled Play Made Me This Way. These will reveal, through memories and testimonies, the life-changing impact of play in their formative years on some inspiring people. Videos can be watched on National Geographic and Real Play Coalition social media channels; find them using #PlayMadeMeThisWay. You can also more about why National Geographic believe play is so important here.

The Real Play Coalition website launched on 1st November at the start of the Global Month of Play and will “form a platform to discuss just how critical play is in forming the well-rounded, creative, empathetic and lateral-thinking adults that tomorrow’s society needs”.

Follow the Real Play Coalition on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2018 Big Assembly now available to watch on demand

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This year, Tomorrow’s Engineers Week presented the first Tomorrow’s Engineers Week Big Assembly.

The assembly was streamed live at 10.30 am on 7th November 2018, offering schools across the UK the chance to simultaneously take part in the same assembly on engineering careers.

A panel of inspiring engineers discussed their careers and the positive impact engineering has on the issues young people care about most, such as protecting the environment, animal welfare, safety and security, health and entertainment.

More than 400 schools participated with nearly 50,000 students taking part.

If you missed it, or would like to watch again, the assembly is now available to play and download at https://www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/tomorrows-engineers-week-2018/the-big-assembly/.

First dates announced for UWE’s new BAME girls in Engineering project

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Yesterday we were delighted to announce the launch Udonna Okeke’s new UWE Bristol project, BAME girls in Engineering, and we now have the exciting news that dates for the first two school visits for the project have been set. What better way to round off Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2018 than helping to inspire the next generation?

The project offers opportunities for Black, Asian and minority ethnicity (BAME) girls, who are often under-represented in engineering, in Years 8 and 9 to visit local engineering or technology employers and to participate in mentoring meetings with professional BAME women in engineering role models.

Udonna has arranged two sessions on Wednesday 21st November for BAME girls and women in engineering to meet in group mentoring meetings.

These will take place at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple Secondary School in the morning and City Academy in the afternoon.

Engineers will be involved in workshop presentation and sharing of their individual experiences that can help motivate and inspire the students.

Udonna is currently looking for BAME women in engineering to get involved as mentors; he will organise for a taxi to pick you up from your preferred location in Bristol to take you to the City Academy or St Mary Redcliffe.

If you would like to be involved, please get in touch with Udonna.

UWE engineers to take part in Leaders Award online interviews

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Engineers from UWE Bristol’s Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics have been invited to take part in ‘Meet an Engineer‘ online interviews as part of Primary & Secondary Engineer Leaders Award, and Miriam Cristofoletti from the Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics at UWE Bristol is taking up the challenge on 7th December.

The Leaders Award asks children “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. This free competition asks students to find a problem, invent a solution, draw it, explain and send it in. Pupils are encouraged to both interview engineers and watch the online interviews.

Miriam, a student engineer in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, is looking forward to her interview and will be discussing, alongside her work, what it’s like being a student engineer. She says she’s taking part “mainly to inspire them, tell them never give up and that it’s OK not to have things working right the first time“.

Miriam has promised to update us on how it goes! Our Women Like Me engineers have also been keen to take part, and will report back too – watch this space!

If you’d like to take part in the Leaders Award as an engineer or school, please get in touch with the team.

BAME girls in Engineering: Opportunity to encourage diversity in engineering

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A new project sponsored by UWE Bristol has kicked off to encourage, motivate and inspire more girls of Black, Asian and minority ethnicity (BAME) into the fields of Engineering and Technology, where they are often under-represented.

The project offers opportunities for BAME girls in Years 8 and 9 to visit local engineering or technology employers (with all transportation costs covered) and to partake in mentoring meetings with professional BAME women in engineering role models.

“BAME girls in Engineering” is championed by Dr Udonna Okeke, a lecturer in Engineering Design and Mathematics at UWE Bristol. “This mentorship programme will help make the girls feel less alone as they chart a career path in Engineering and Technology,” said Udonna.

Why?

The UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe and every year there is a shortfall in engineering skills.  It’s estimated that enabling more women to work in engineering and technology could add as much as £28 trillion to the annual GDP in 2025.

Of the 20.5% of women working in the engineering sector in the UK in 2017, only 8.1% were from BAME groups, implying that ethnic diversity in engineering and technology is another crucial issue to be resolved.

The BAME girls in Engineering initiative aims to promote a more diverse group of engineers and create a platform for them to be part of the innovative solutions to the engineering problems in the South West of England and the UK as a whole.

How to get involved

If you’re an engineering or technology employer in the Bristol region and want to get involved you can:

  • provide an opportunity for students to visit your engineering sites to see what it means to work on a typical engineering project
  • nominate BAME engineers within your company that can act as mentors to the girls in the project.
  • take part in UWE hosted celebration event for all those involved in the project in June 2019

To hear more about the project or to get involved as a company or school teacher, please do get in touch with Udonna.

Written by Louisa Cockbill for Engineering Our Future.

X Factor for Engineers – I’m an Engineer, Get me out of here!

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I’m an Engineer, Get me out of here! gives school students the chance to talk with engineers – and you could be one of those engineers.

Taking place every November, March and June with applications open all the time, I’m an Engineer, Get me out of here! is an online event where school students connect with engineers. It’s an X Factor-style competition between engineers, where the students are the judges.

Students challenge the engineers over fast-paced online live CHATs. They ASK the engineers anything they want, and VOTE for their favourite engineer to win a prize of £500 to communicate their work with the public.

Evaluation shows that taking part in I’m an Engineer helps students to improve their understanding of what engineering is and what engineers do. Teachers and engineers benefit too:

Would you like to be one of the engineers taking part? You can read more information and find out how to apply here.

I’m an Engineer, Get me out here! is currently running two zones, from 5th-16th November.

Have you got your Tomorrow’s Engineers Week resources?

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Tomorrow’s Engineers Week 2018 is underway! Running from 5th-9th November, the campaign aims to change perceptions of engineering among young people, their parents and teachers and to inspire future engineers.

In the Year of Engineering, #TEWeek18 is focusing on topics young people care about – including saving the environment, animal welfare, staying safe, health and entertainment.

There are lots of resources to support you with joining in on the Tomorrow’s Engineer Week 2018 website, including toolkits for schools, employers and engineers and more, social media templates, and Engineer on a Mission videos like the one below.

These are all available to access free of charge and it’s not too late to get involved!

 

We need more Engine-Ears

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This is a guest post from Louise Hetherington, assistant structural engineer at Atkins and participant in UWE Bristol’s Women Like Me programme. Louise has been involved in developing Engine-Ears, Atkins’ first STEM video for 7-11 years olds, and tells us more about it here.

Empowering young people to re-imagine STEM and change the future

STEM subjects excite us! So, for many years, SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business has been committed to promoting them to our local communities. Our strong STEM networks across our UK offices work tirelessly to be in classrooms and careers fairs, inspiring the next generation into Engineering and other STEM areas.

In the Year of Engineering we made the decision to reduce the age of our school target audience from 14 to seven. We wanted to reach out to younger children, their parents and influencers. Our goals were to inspire young minds into STEM subjects and at the same time, smash any stereotypes that exist around STEM careers.

Getting STEM animated

With support from Fifty One Films, the Atkins business created Engine-Ears. It’s an upbeat, catchy animation designed to appeal to children. The film explores what engineers do to shape the world around us in a relatable and understandable way. And it’s worked. With over 200,000 views on YouTube and other social media platforms, Engine-Ears has been delighting children all over the country.

 

Imagination-sparking resources

But we didn’t stop there. To accompany the video, we created a resource pack for teachers, pulling ideas from the video into classroom activities. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we believed sharing resources across the engineering community would be the most efficient way forward. So we used well known resources from other companies, referencing the good work they’ve done. Going forward we want to share our teacher pack and video with others in the industry, so together we can spread the message even further.

Diversity in early careers

The Atkins business has also created an inspiring video that encourages career seekers to consider a STEM profession. Rather than just focussing on engineering, the video highlights transport planning, civil engineering and architecture. By selecting other roles within the Atkins business, the video continues to highlight that diversity is key within the engineering community. Our aim is to widen the talent pool and not just encourage the stereotypical demographic to pursue a specific career.

Let’s shape the future together

We believe STEM promotion is most powerful when we work as a team. No one company or person can spread the message as well as a whole industry pulling together. The Atkins business is pushing forward to ensure there are fun and engaging STEM sessions in our offices and at local schools. But it’s not about promoting the company, it’s about promoting the subjects and careers available. We hope to share our knowledge and resources with others to shout the message louder. We all want the same thing – to make sure the engineers of the future know it’s a fantastic career path and it can be the right choice for them, regardless of their gender, race or background.

We need more people in STEM subjects, so let’s work together to achieve that.

To get involved, contact us here.

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and new resources for schools

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Whizz Pop Bang, “the awesome science magazine for kids” have kindly offered use of their resources in our Women Like Me activities. They’re not just a magazine; they create hands-on science lessons too. Here’s what Rachael, the Whizz Pop Bang’s head of communications, had to tell us:

What is Whizz Pop Bang?

Whizz Pop Bang is an award-winning, 36-page children’s magazine jam-packed with science fun! Printed on lovely, thick, uncoated paper (so that kids can colour, scribble and record their science results in it), it’s a top-quality magazine that’s built to last. Each month’s issue focuses on a new and interesting subject, with broad-ranging content to appeal to all budding scientists aged between six and twelve. Have a flick through a virtual copy of Whizz Pop Bang here.

Each month’s magazine is written by expert science writers, such as Isabel Thomas, author of more than 100 children’s science books. Each magazine is full of facts, puzzles, news and simple hands-on experiments that can easily be done at home or in school, giving parents, teachers and kids the tools to become scientists in their kitchens and classrooms!

We believe that kids make the best scientists. WHY? Because they’re inquisitive, keen to learn and have open minds that just love asking “Why…?”!

New teaching resources for schools
One of our key aims for Whizz Pop Bang is to help as many children as possible to enjoy the awesome world of science. So we’ve created a growing library of top-quality downloadable Whizz Pop Bang lesson plans and reading resources for schools to make science fun and engaging for children and teachers alike. 

What are the resources for schools?
Our Whizz Pop Bang school resources have been written by primary teachers in conjunction with science experts and they all link to the national curriculum…

  • Differentiated lesson plans
  • Simple hands-on investigations using household items
  • Interactive PowerPoint presentations to guide the lessons
  • Guiding reading texts and comprehension questions*
  • Science games

* Science texts and comprehensions, written by teachers, link to the English reading curriculum. They include How Stuff Works, interviews with real scientists and stories of sensational scientists from the past.

Subscriptions to the resources are for the whole school, with as many teacher log-ins as required.

How much does it cost?

 We know budgets are tighter than ever, so we’re offering schools a 50% discount on the resources until 31st December 2018. Whole-school access to the downloadable resources, along with 4 magazines in the post each month costs just £225 for the whole year with unlimited teacher logins. For an average-sized school of 300 children, that’s just 75p per pupil per year.

To calculate the price per pupil for your school, use our online pricing tool at whizzpopbang.com/schools (prices exclude VAT).

Top five reasons for schools to subscribe to Whizz Pop Bang:

  • Accessible content for classrooms, libraries and science clubs
  • Written by expert teachers and science writers
  • Linked to the science and reading curricula
  • Bursting with rich practical science experiments
  • Gives teachers the confidence to deliver accurate science lessons

We’re particularly keen on the Whizz Pop Bang engineering resources and their issue on Super Structures, which you can read more about here.

To find out more visit whizzpopbang.com/schools, or if you have any questions, drop the team an email to hello@whizzpopbang.com or call them on 0330 2233790. You can also follow Whizz Pop Bang on social media: @whizzpopbangmag

Children as Engineers highly commended at STEM Inspiration Awards

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A UWE team have been at the House of Lords in London today, after they were shortlisted for an Inspirational STEM Engagement Project Award in the 2018 STEM Inspiration Awards.

Laura Fogg-Rogers ran Children as Engineers, a collaboration between the UWE Bristol Department of Education and Childhood and Department of Engineering, Design and Mathematics, with Juliet Edmonds and Dr Fay Lewis.

The team attended the awards ceremony and were highly commended for the project, which paired student engineers and pre-service teachers to undertake engineering design challenges in primary schools; a well deserved recognition of their hard work and dedication.