STEM Clubs

School: Hanham High School Status: In progress Date Started: 25 Nov 2009 Date Completed: 22 Aug 2012 Keywords tags: No of pupils: 6 Number of views: 1441 Related Resources:

After all the hard work and enthusiasm that club members had put into their projects this year it was with great excitement that club members greeted the news that they had been asked by STEMNET club network organisers to attend the launch ceremony for ASSEC clubs across the UK.

Six pupils were selected to travel to London for the day and to talk to MPs, STEM organisers, engineers and educationalists about their projects and to be there during the official launch celebrations. It was a great honour to be recognised and selected for this event so the competition for places was hotly contended by our club members.

After being dropped off on Parliament Square by the Houses of Parliament, pupils headed for the Council Chambers in Dean’s Yard where they set up their displays and got ready to do deliver their PowerPoint presentations to the assembled dignitaries. Mr Matthew Tosh of STEMNET opened the proceedings after which the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools Diana Johnson MP spoke to the audience about her role within the government and why supporting and encouraging Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects in schools is so important. Immediately afterwards, life peer and former minister for Science and Innovation Lord Sainsbury spoke in support of after-school clubs and how important they are for inspiring and encouraging pupils to study STEM subjects in the future. Our pupils, followed by pupils from Tanfield School in Durham, then gave their presentations - both of which were received fantastically well by the audience.

A reporter and camera team from Teachers’ TV were present and recorded the event.

After the talks Lord Sainsbury spoke with the pupils and showed great interest in the projects they have been completing. In the pictures you can see Oliver Adams (then in Year 8), Lord Sainsbury and Mr G Hardman discussing motion-detection equipment that club members have been able to take home to capture images of hedgehogs, cats and slug- eating frogs during the night! Do look at our other projects where you can see uploaded videos from the pupils' own gardens featuring all creatures great and small!

After the hard work of impressing so many important people in the world of government and industry pupils headed off across Westminster Bridge for a flight on the London Eye to study its impressive engineering. In the pictures you can see students in an eye capsule high above central London. After the 30-minute flight pupils purchased photos of themselves from the souvenir shop and then headed off to the Natural History Museum.