Inspiring youngsters with workshop sessions from SmartSTEMs

All News

Last week, our team attended two workshop sessions delivered by SmartSTEMs, a charity dedicated to inspiring the next generation about STEM subjects, including Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, and the career opportunities available within these sectors.

Our team delivered a workshop on Day 1 at the UHI Inverness campus to demonstrate how a career in STEM is related to the job opportunities for young people at RSE and within the wider water industry.

The students were challenged to create a prototype that RSE could take into schools to present a problem-solving challenge that would be suitable for S1 to S3 pupils. The students were split into two groups, a Design team and a Construction team, each with an assigned Project Manager. The task challenged the students’ ability to communicate successfully as a team and was an interactive experience which portrayed collaborative working in a STEM environment. Our team was delighted with the student’s participation and to have the opportunity to discuss with them the career opportunities available in STEM.

On Day 2, our team visited Inverkeithing High School to deliver the workshop to 300 pupils who are beginning the transition from P7 into S1. The team had a great day helping to inspire the pupils and hearing about the ways in which STEM is being championed in schools from other organisations and educators.

We split the pupils into 2 groups over 45-minute workshop sessions to take apart the pipework of already made-up rigs and asked them to put the pipework back together. Once the groups were happy with their preferred route through specially cut holes on polypropylene panels, the pump connected at one side of the rig was turned on to allow water in our pre-made polypropylene bunds to pass through the pipework and flow to the outlet on the other side of the rig.

The pupils quickly managed to get the hang of working the push fittings used to connect the pipework and were able to work well as a team at different points of the rig to work out a route for the water to pass through within the allocated time slot – all while asking plenty of questions about what we do at RSE on a daily basis