The MAKERS project actively supported local community groups in helping them to develop new skills around making and repair, promoting self-sufficiency and empowerment of individuals and communities, and highlighting engineering as a career choice. As part of this, MAKERS collaborated with three remarkable community organisations in St Paul’s:
Bridging Histories: A project co-led with Bristol University, focused on uniting divided communities.
Each One Teach One: A violence prevention organisation dedicated to fostering peace.
Fancy Finance: An organisation assisting local residents in managing the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.
The Workshops
The community partners and the MAKERS team co-designed a series of seven workshops running from April to June 2024. These sessions aimed to introduce participants to new engineering skills and inspire future aspirations:
Introduction to Basic Electronics (including soldering, see image above, taken by George Francis)
Scooter and (Electric) Bike Mechanics and Maintenance
An Introduction to Python Coding
Computer Aided Design (Tinkercad)
Routes into Higher Education and Engineering
Tour of UWE Bristol’s Engineering Building (Featuring Virtual Reality Rooms, Simulators, and a wind turbine building activity.)
Trip to Pytch Bristol (A sustainably run event production company.)
Pytch Bristol – photo by Dayton PowellInside Pytch Air – photo by Dayton PowellDigital Gallery – photo by Dayton PowellExploring digital engineering using Minecraft – photo by Dayton Powell
Impact and Participation
Each session was attended by up to 15 young people, supported by community experts and current/former UWE students and staff. Many participants faced significant barriers to higher education, so MAKERS focused on creating an inclusive and welcoming environment at the university, a place many had never visited before.
Learning and Future Collaborations
The project offered invaluable insights for both the university and community organisations. This experience has laid the groundwork for future collaborations, and the MAKERS team is excited about establishing a long-term partnership to continue supporting and empowering the community.
The MAKERS project was funded through the Diversity Impact Programme from the Royal Academy of Engineering, aiming to improve belonging for diverse engineers. The evaluation findings will be reported soon.
Student-led designs for a new heat network serving Barton Hill’s tower blocks are being taken forward by Bristol Energy Cooperative and Baggator Nexus. Over 30 students on the third year Professionalism for Engineers module developed potential solutions for the Heat Network and pitched their ideas back to local residents. These proposals are being taken forward as a potential Community Energy project, called Barton Heat.
UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering have been long-term collaborators with Baggator Nexus, working on several community co-development projects.
Their outreach team have supported several cohorts of young people over the past five years, with STEM learning and engagement activities. These include the West in Minecraft sessions, and Tinkercad 3D design workshops, which were delivered as part of the MAKERS project.
Digital design workshops with children from St Mark’s Road Mosque
Tinkercad workshop at UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering with children from St Mark’s Road Mosque
This collaboration also continues to offer opportunities for Engineering Students to work on live brief projects, providing real world experience where they can contribute towards sustainability goals. This not only provides students with skills for their employability but contributes towards UWE Bristol’s mission as a Civic University with an aim to reach Net Zero by 2030.
A team of students are also currently helping to fix broken traffic and pollution sensors as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering funded project MAKERS, which will be installed on buildings in the area to help improve the air quality for its residents.
Working with Baggator provides a fantastic opportunity to support young people from under-represented groups in STEM, which fulfils UWE Bristol’s aims to diversify the STEM industry.
The UWE MAKERS project has been going from strength to strength since it first launched in September last year to help improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the region.
The project is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and aims to support diverse students to continue their careers within engineering. Student feedback has helped the team to develop more employability benefits and direct industry links.
Networking opportunities
During the UWE Repair Café, students now get to work alongside STEM Ambassadors from Industry and Community Volunteers from the Bristol Repair Café Network, many of which are retired engineers themselves. This is a great way to meet and learn from experienced professionals, and connect over hands-on repair, whilst supporting the wider community and the University’s sustainability goals.
MAKERS student volunteers earn digital Skills Badges, which can be used on LinkedIn profile and other social channels to help showcase any relevant skills earned, whilst also enabling badge earners to see job postings requiring those skills.
There are three types of badges: bronze, silver, and gold, depending on the level of involvement in the MAKERS project.
Repair Group and Technician Repair Support
MAKERS students can access technician support and facilities to help grow their repair skills and confidence. This includes the electronic maker space, the 3D printing facilities, and the fitting shop, with all the available tools. There are also a number of sewing machines and an overlocker available to use by those with an interest in textile repair.
Demonstrable Green Skills
The MAKERS project works with the Restart Project to measure their environmental impact, in particular in terms of how much waste has been saved from landfill, and how many CO2 emissions have the saved.
Get involved in MAKERS:
Students who would like to get involved can sign up here.
We particularly encourage women and students from Black, Asian and racially minoritised backgrounds to get in touch!
Laura Fogg-Rogers, Associate Professor for Engineering in Society, was recently featured on BBC Radio Bristol, where she talked about her work at UWE Bristol and her latest project.
In the interview with host Steve Yabsley, Laura talked about how her work focusses on the relationship between people and technology, and her passion for sustainability, climate action and climate education. As such, she feels strongly about designing a future that makes a difference to communities and the environments they are embedded in, something that is not only evidenced by her work at UWE: alongside her role at the School of Engineering, Laura is also very active in her local community, where she runs a climate action group and, as part of that, a Repair Café. She is also a key figure in the wider Bristol Repair Café network, where she has helped to set up numerous Repair Cafés in the city and beyond.
Laura is a strong supporter of the Repair Movement and the Circular Economy, as they address numerous challenges typically associated with the throwaway culture and overconsumption dominant in the Global North, something that is further fuelled by planned obsolescence.
“When you throw something out, it doesn’t go out, it just goes somewhere else in the world and creates problems for other people. So, we need to think about our stuff and where it goes, and that’s the circular economy: things going round in circles, being re-used, and really thinking about the best materials, that are going to last the longest.”
Laura Fogg-Rogers in her interview on BBC Radio Bristol
However, Repair Cafés do not only tackle the practical challenges around Climate Change, but there are wider societal benefits, too: Repair Cafés can generate a real sense of community, helping to create a sense of belonging and purpose, alongside increased levels of confidence that come with the “joy of problem solving”.
Some impressions from Repair Cafés “in action” in Eastville and Winterbourne
Having experienced the benefits of Repair Cafés first hand, Laura was keen to bring the Repair Movement and all its benefits to UWE Bristol and its students: Her latest project, MAKERS, which stands for “Making And Knowledge Exchange for Repair & Sustainability” is designed to help students from all backgrounds feel a sense of belonging, and for them to grow and develop their engineering passions, whilst supporting their community at UWE Bristol and beyond.
The Royal Academy of Engineering awarded nearly £90,000 to the project from its Diversity Impact Programme, which aims to inspire change within university engineering departments. The programme provides funding for schemes that transform the experiences of engineering students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.
As part of the project, engineering students at UWE will be setting up a Repair Café on campus, drawing on the experience of volunteers in established Repair Cafés in the Bristol area:
“We want to encourage that hands-on and intergenerational learning between students and communities. […] A lot of engineering these days is digital, it’s very technical and high-tech and you don’t get to take things apart as much because you might break it, so we are going to re-teach those skills. […] It’s also about tackling loneliness, community isolation, and students forming a community together.”
Laura Fogg-Rogers on BBC Radio Bristol
Apart from local Repair Cafés, The MAKERS project will also be working with Community and Youth Projects in St Paul’s and Easton, building on UWE Bristol Engineering’s growing reputation for supporting representation and belonging in engineering for Women and people from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic groups, alongside inter-sectional backgrounds of lower socio-economic status.
Kat Corbett, who is a Repair Café volunteer at the Old Library in Eastville, has since joined the team at UWE as a project co-ordinator, where she will be drawing on her experience in the community to help MAKERS thrive.
A toolkit and training for effective youth climate comms and social action
UWE Bristol’s Science Communication Unit (SCU) is launching a new Youth Climate Action Toolkit to empower young people to act on things that matter to them. The toolkit is suitable for 16-24-year-olds, and we encourage you to please download and share the kit with any (young) person you think may benefit from these tools!
The newly developed toolkit has been produced in partnership with young people from the Avon Schools Eco Network, following pilot training held with the DETI Inspire team in the School of Engineering.
The pilot involved 12 young climate activists who learnt how to be more effective with their own campaigning, whilst forming the foundations of this new toolkit to support other young people. As well as empowering young people to act, the toolkit aims to speak with and engage diverse audiences that may not otherwise take part (e.g., through filmmaking, persuasive writing and interactive stalls, etc).
What is inside the toolkit?
To allow any young person to use the materials independently of the training, the toolkit has been designed to stand-alone or complement the training. It consists of four sections:
Section one: lays the foundations for effective team working, with a skills audit for young people to assess their baseline entrepreneurial skills for sustainability, and time set aside to define their action project based on need
Section two: encourages readers to understand different worldviews – including those from different sides of the political spectrum, and people in positions of power and influence
Section three: drills down into the communication methods, allowing readers to select the right method for their audience and to prototype and test their communications
Section four: encourages readers to reflect on their learnings, re-assess their skills and evaluate the impact of their communications
Training in the community
The SCU team have also been delivering the Youth Climate Communications to local colleges and youth groups. The training is modular, which allows it to be adapted to suit the needs and interests of the organisations involved.
The training is already being modified to suit the needs of one college, where they have aims to support a more sustainable educational environment by delivering to their students over a two-week period at the end of term. Students will vote on a priority for action within their college and then work in teams, with the support of a coach, developing a communications and behaviour change campaign which could then be delivered in the following term.
The young people’s experience of the programme is being evaluated to better understand whether their attitudes, skills and behaviours relating to sustainability, change as a result of the training. Findings will be shared on this blog later this year.
For empowerment programmes
Meanwhile, aspects of the training are also being delivered to participants of more established empowerment programmes, such as this year’s Catalyse Change programme, Bristol Education Partnership’s Climate Challenge and The Global Goals Centre’s Groundbreakers awards, with the toolkit also featuring in the Groundbreakers’ action pack.
A future aim of the project is to deliver the training online to youth groups and educational establishments across the country, and beyond, with training provided to educators to deliver the programme themselves. For a taster of what this training could look like, head to our YouTube where you can access the social media component of the training.
Where it all began
The training emerged from conversations among the SCU and colleagues about the desire to share our knowledge on climate communications and active citizenship more broadly, so when a funding opportunity arose the Unit was quick to pull together a team to make their dream a reality. The all-female team consists of academics and researchers in disciplines ranging from human geography, engineering, and environmental anthropology – to building physics and entrepreneurship. What unites them is a common interest in supporting young people to develop the skills and confidence they need to take action about things that matter to them.
This training is the first offering from UWE’s Climate Action Hub, also established by the SCU. The Hub is a place for researchers and students to connect with communities for climate action. There is already some work on campus doing just this, such as the children’s workshops delivered by DETI Inspire and Inspire Sustainability, but this is the first time training has been put in place to support the University and communities to do more.
To find out more about the in-person and online toolkit or to connect to the Climate Action Hub, email project manager Sophie Laggan.
After the success of this year’s scientist storytelling program in schools, the DETI Inspire team alongside the West of England STEM Ambassador hub is once again offering the highly requested training session to scientists in the South West.
Training session is taking place on 13th July, 4 – 6pm at UWE’s Frenchay campus.
Once trained, STEM Ambassadors will take specially selected books into schools to read – the books are selected from a collection that features stories with people from minority ethnicity backgrounds, women, and those with a neurodivergent brain having fun with science! These stories, and the real-life scientists reading them enable children to see a more diverse picture of science , helping them to “see themselves” as scientists.
Get Involved
To ensure the continued success of this outreach activity and visit more schools and children, we’re looking for more ambassadors to sign up to the free training session.
If you are already an approved STEM Ambassador, you can view the offer and sign up to the event here:
We’re running the training as a hybrid event, with Zoom as an option if you can’t make it in, however, we highly recommend you join us face-to-face on the 13th of July at UWE Bristol.
The session will last approximately 2 hours and will be led by an experienced primary educator (Jane Carter from UWE’s Education unit) who will teach you how to present fantastic stereotype-challenging stories to children. And you’ll get a chance to have a go! Readings in schools will take place during the new school year (September 2022 onwards) and also during Bristol’s Storytale Festival in October halfterm.
Are you an engineer or someone who works in, or is interested in, digital engineering and technology sectors in the West of England, UK?
What would make the sector more inclusive for you?
Come to our Listening Workshops this summer to share with us your hopes and the challenges you face.
These listening workshops are for individuals, underrepresented/ underserved people, so we can work with and for you, as part of the Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation(DETI) Skills and Workforce Development Programme led by the Engineering Design and Mathematicsdepartment at UWE Bristol, helping remove barriers and open up access to digital skills, jobs and technologies.
The technology and engineering sectors have some of the biggest skills shortages in the UK, but also some of the greatest opportunities for future jobs. We want to proactively include as many people as possible in the future of digital.
We will be hosting several listening workshops throughout June and July, for different groups of individuals currently underrepresented or underserved in engineering. Each workshop will provide opportunities for you to share your voice, participate in discussions and network with like-minded people.
After launching a new round in November 2020, the project has recently inducted a new cohort. Thirty women in engineering have been matched into 15 mentoring pairs, connecting senior engineers with junior engineers. The junior engineers are being linked to outreach opportunities, which despite current restrictions are available to undertake through remote provision and online platforms.
Participating engineers in this cohort come to the project from a range of engineering fields, including aerospace, civil engineering, renewable energy, robotics and more. Outreach opportunities such as The Big Beam In are available to participate in, with more to come.
With women making up only 12% of engineers in the UK, more girls need to connect with engineering as a career, with positive female role models, and more women need to be supported to make a difference in the workplace. Find out more about the importance of diversity in engineering here.
Women Like Me addresses this by pairing mid-career women engineers with junior women engineers to provide career and public engagement mentoring. Junior engineers delivering engineering engagement activities in local schools and at local public events, provide positive role models for young girls. Through this approach, the project will lead to impact both in the workplace today, and for the future of the engineering profession.
Were you the first in your family to go to university?
If so, Future Quest would like you to share your story as part of their #IAmFirstGen campaign.
What is #IAmFirstGen?
The #IAmFirstGen campaign aims to highlight that anyone can study at university, regardless of their background, and that there are lots of different journeys into higher education.
One barrier to young people attending university is often that they don’t see themselves as belonging at a university, as they think that there is nobody like them studying at degree level. The campaign plans to dispel this myth by showcasing different stories from graduates.
To do this, #IAmFirstGen will bring together companies, organisations, and individuals across the South West to form a community of students and graduates that are the first in their family to study at degree level. This pool of ‘first in family’ ambassadors will highlight the diversity of educational journeys and career pathways that people in various sectors have followed and support the progression of young people who possess skills and talent, but who do not have the networks or connections in their chosen sector.
By telling personal stories, the transformative power of higher education experiences can be shared with young people from first generation backgrounds to help build their expectations and create their own narrative for the future.
Who can take part?
There a few different ways to get involved, whether you are an individual, small social enterprise or large business.
Individuals: Become a First Gen Ambassador. Commit to sharing personal stories of your journey to and through higher education and onto your current employment, and support First Gen learners to build their own stories.
First Gen Employers: Commit to targeted outreach and graduate recruitment activities to further the opportunities for First Gen learners, with support from UWE Bristol and the Future Quest Outreach Hub.
What do you need to do?
First Gen Ambassadors: If you are a first generation graduate, share your experiences by writing a Letter To Previous Self. You can find downloadable guidance and examples of letters here.
First Gen Employers: Show your support by sharing news of the campaign with your colleagues and networks and help to reach people that may be able to contribute a letter.
We know that organisations are increasingly recognising the value of diversity and want to support the social mobility agenda. More than 500 organisations, including UWE Bristol, have signed the Social Mobility Pledge, committing to closing opportunity gaps and working together to address inequalities. Supporting #IAmFirstGen will enable your business to further social mobility and celebrate first generation graduate colleagues.
Future Quest is a collaborative outreach project based at UWE Bristol, providing targeted outreach in areas where progression into higher education is lower than might be predicted from GCSE results. For more information about Future Quest or the #IAmFirstGen campaign please contact the team via future.quest@uwe.ac.uk
Building to Break Barriers is a new outreach project that aims to engage children from under-represented groups with engineering, using the computer game Minecraft, which allows players to build almost limitless creations.
The project will co-produce ten new engineering outreach sessions with engineers, children, and young people, and deliver them around the UK. To increase representation, the children involved will be from under-represented groups, and so will some of the engineers. Engineers will receive outreach training and support throughout the project. Activity will take place online during COVID-19 restrictions.
Why Minecraft?
Building to Break Barriers is a Science Hunters project. Science Hunters uses Minecraft to engage children with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) for three key reasons:
Minecraft is very popular – it has even been referred to as one of the most important games of the current generation. This means that it is both familiar and appealing to children, and can interest them in topics that they might not otherwise engage with. It is also relatively easy to use, and quickly picked up.
Minecraft has various features which represent items and processes in the real world. This makes it ideal for communicating about, and building understanding of, a range of scientific concepts.
The game can be used in different modes on a range of hardware, including Creative mode, which allows unlimited building and therefore has high flexibility.
What’s involved?
Children and schools
UK children and schools are invited to participate in co-designing outreach sessions with the project team and engineers. This may look different for each school and child, and could include: contributing an idea for a session topic, voting on a selection of session topics, suggesting hands-on resources, or designing part of a Minecraft challenge. They will also be able, circumstances permitting, to trial or take part in the developed sessions.
Ideally, this project would take place in schools. During COVID-19 restrictions, these elements can be conducted remotely with children who are either attending school (supported by teaching staff) or learning from home (with family support). The specific approach for each school will be discussed individually with staff.
Engineers
Engineers will also have the opportunity to co-design and deliver outreach sessions. This may be directly with schools and children as above, with Minecraft Clubs for specific groups, at public events, or with the project team (activities dependent on COVID-19 restrictions). Engineers will be able to choose their type and level of involvement to suit them.
Engineers will also receive 1:1 outreach training and have the opportunity to participate in group discussions, which will be conducted remotely to improve access and inclusion (e.g. for those with caring responsibilities).
Children, their teachers and parents/carers, and engineers will all be asked to provide evaluative information and will be able to contribute to the project’s ongoing direction and development.
Who can take part?
This project aims to reach children who may face barriers to accessing educational opportunities and have characteristics that mean they are under-represented in Engineering.
The project has a particular focus on supporting:
Women and girls
People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
People from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds (e.g. eligible for Pupil Premium, or from areas with low progression to Higher Education)
Looked After Children/Care leavers
Under-represented groups can also include people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicities, with disabilities or long-term illnesses, in rural areas or limited access to services, who were/would be the first generation in the their family to go to university, who are carers/young carers, and with English as an Additional Language (NB this list is not exhaustive).
Representation is really important in enabling young people to feel that engineering is ‘for them’, so engineers who fall (or would have fallen, as children) into these groups are particularly encouraged to join the project.
Engineers can be from any engineering field, based in the UK. Whilst we recognise the value of undergraduate students, we are not able to offer places to them for this project. UWE provides public engagement training for undergraduate engineering students through the Engineering and Society module.
Schools who are interested in being involved should contact Laura and Sophie on ExtendingSTEM@uwe.ac.uk. Unless already involved with Science Hunters, parents/carers of children should ask their child’s school to contact us.
Engineers who are interested in being involved can complete an expression of interest here, and will be contacted when outreach can begin. Engineers in the West of England can also become part of the new initiative for Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation (DETI) Diversity Demonstrator database of diverse engineering role models; sign up to the mailing list here.
The project ends in January 2022. For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Laura and Sophie at ExtendingSTEM@uwe.ac.uk
