STEM Newsround

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHS (STEM)

NEWSROUND

Download my guide, "A very useful guide to understanding STEM" for high school students, teachers and parents.

SHARJAH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 2 - 13 NOVEMBER 2022


I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend for second time, the Sharjah International Book Fair in the UAE from the 2nd to the 13th of November 2022 and was lucky to be featured at the start of the official fair launch video (check it out below!). This book fair is the biggest publisher to consumer book fair in the world with over 2 million visitors.


I once again spoke to dozens upon dozens of students, from primary schools all the way to university, involved in STEM subjects or aiming for a career in STEM.  I took the opportunity to give them plenty of additional tips for self-confidence and career success. I also had the pleasure of speaking to many parents and teachers all very keen to ensure study success for their children and their students.


I consider it a great privilege to be able to talk to students, teachers and parents about their education journey and challenges, and plans for the future. I was also keen on lecturing about The Technology of Study - developed in the 1960s by American philosopher and educator L. Ron Hubbard - including its core principles surrounding the three barriers to study.


I also had the opportunity to speak to them about my newly launched STEMiteracy Initiative. And that went down very well.

 

Technology of Study titles on sale included: Learning How to Learn (7-11 years), Study Skills for Life (11-14  years), The Basic Study Manual (15+, teachers and parents), and How to Use a Dictionary (7-13). Over 200 copies of titles were purchased by eager students, parents and teachers, after receiving a demonstration of Study Tech's core principles.

  COVID LOCKDOWN ZOOM!

Calculating aircraft lift and talking about engineering careers for Padgate Academy students in Warrington.

Earlier this year (Feb 2021), I was set a lovely challenge to support delivery of the Key Stage 3 maths curriculum (KS3, that is 11-14 years). The topic for that half-term was areas and volumes. And the challenge was twofold:


1. Demonstrate use of areas and volumes in an engineering activity in a video of 5 minutes maximum.


So I chose to demonstrate how areas are used to calculate aircraft lift in such a way that most of the 11-14 year old students could understand and could do it! And they could!!
 The goal was to demonstrate that engineering is not always difficult and even KS3 maths is sufficient to work out a number of engineering problems.


The following resources support the Calculating Aircraft Lift video.

Calculating Aircraft Lift

Printable wingspan areas sheet


2. Discuss engineering as a career in a second video of 5 minutes maximum.

I then also produced a video explaining what engineering is, highlighting LITERACY as a key component to understand the subject. In this video, I talk about a STEM guide clarifying the relationship between art and engineering and other aspects.


Here are the resources:

STEM Guide

What is Engineering?

"The resources [calculating aircraft lift and engineering presentation] were absolutely fantastic. I asked the students their views in comparison to a normal lesson and they were overwhelmingly positive as they could really see the purpose and application of what they had been learning. We have used them with year 7 , 8 and 9. Depending on the age and ability, students were able to find the area of the wings or find the area and lift.... This has been a fantastic first experience for us of ‘meaningfully’ incorporating careers into the curriculum and I would like to pass on the thanks of the whole team for your support...you have made this an extremely positive experience."

R.P. Teacher of Mathematics, Padgate Academy, Warrington, Cheshire

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SHARJAH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR 
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 4 - 14 NOVEMBER 2020

I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the Sharjah International Book Fair in the UAE from the 4th to the 14th of November 2020 to talk to students, teachers and parents about The Technology of Study- developed in the 1960s by American philosopher and educator L. Ron Hubbard - including its core principles surrounding the three barriers to study.

I spoke to dozens of students who were either currently on a STEM university degree or higher education course, and to high school and primary school students who were aspiring to get into a STEM profession. I took the opportunity to give them plenty of additional tips for self-confidence and career success. I also had the pleasure of speaking to a number of parents and teachers all very keen to ensure study success for their children and their students.
 
Technology of Study titles on sale included: Learning How to Learn (7-11 years), Study Skills for Life (11-14  years), The Basic Study Manual (15+, teachers and parents), and How to Use a Dictionary (7-13). Over 117 copies of titles were purchased by eager students, parents and teachers, after receiving a demonstration of Study Tech's core principles.
Tahmina Sayfi from the Henrietta Barnett School is awarded the prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship!

Tahmina (centre) was part of the VEX Robotics team I personally sponsored in 2019 for the VEX Robotics national finals in Telford (see full story further down). Her team picked up the Vex Robotics Design Award. Tahmina took the opportunity to listen to some good mentoring advice and tips which I have for young engineers and actually put it into practice. As a result, she did the work and she secured a 2020 summer work placement at WSP Group (cut a little short due to Covid) and went on to be awarded the prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship ! My congratulations to Tahmina. Here is what she had to say:

"Delphine has been a mentor to me over the past couple of years. The passion she has for diversifying the landscape within engineering is admirable in that she has always reminded me how purely competence-based success in engineering is. Often other people or organisations can get hung up on the issue of gender in industry, almost making it feel like we as women should have a chip on our shoulder in the workplace or academia, whatever it may be, but I have never felt that with Delphine's advice - the key thing about her advice is empowerment, empowerment, empowerment. She is so genuine and kind and offers the links and resources as well as ideas from which I have been able to find STEM-based opportunities for myself and I really thank her for giving me the confidence to put myself out there. Her story is so inspiring. Her actions back up the incredible support she has been personally to me and my peers. I very much thank you Delphine and am incredibly inspired by you." Tahmina Sayfi

VEX ROBOTICS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2020 - For the second time, I decided to continue sponsoring one of the Henrietta Barnett School's VEX Robotics teams. This year, the team I sponsored was HBS Phoenix made up from left to right of Medha Mishra, Ishika Samanta, Bianca Giustiniani, Sophieanne Rosil, Rebecca Shrestha and Sabrina Radzik-Rahman.

The team had an extraordinary success !!  The event lasted 2 days at the Telford international center in February 2020. By the end of the qualification matches the team had ranked 1st in the division with 10 wins and 0 losses.

Following this, they won all the elimination matches, winning the division's Champions Award. This enabled them to progress further into the tournament finals and receive the tournament Finalists Award.


They also won the Sportsmanship Award, which is awarded to the team demonstrating the best sportsmanship, as well the prestigious Excellence Award, which is awarded for the highest overall performance in all aspects of the competition (skills, tournament and design). By winning both the Tournament Finalists and the Excellence Award, the team actually double qualified for the VEX EDR Robotics World Championships in Kentucky, USA.

VEX ROBOTICS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019 - I recently had the pleasure to personally sponsor HBS Inferno, one of the Henrietta Barnett School's six VEX Robotics teams at the regional and national heats. HBS Inferno, made up of seven year 10 students, each with a specific role such as design, programming, construction etc. did very well in the regional heat and picked up the Vex Robotics Design Award! It is really a fantastic experience to attend these competitions. The energy and enthusiasm of the young participants is truly a breath of fresh air. There is so much engineering talent around, and I certainly wish all of them success in stepping onto the engineering career ladder!  Twitter @HBS_INFERNO

A Very Useful Guide to Understanding STEM


Based on my experience of home-schooling and my own university studies, and as a STEM ambassador in contact with school teachers, parents and pupils, I came to realise that words such as science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are used almost daily in schools but many students do not know their proper meaning.


This can result in students missing out on a STEM education just because they do not really understand what the subject is all about or perhaps because they believe that the subject is just too hard for them (due to lack of fundamental comprehension).


Therefore, I wrote A Very Useful Guide to Understanding STEM as a first attempt to explain in writing what STEM is all about using definitions of key words, pictures and fun explanations. It has been posted on All About STEM's website for the past 12 months as a downloadable resource for students and teacher.


I hope that it will be helpful to users and that it will spur on other educators to take the time to clarify the meanings of key words in a subject being taught, which is an important step to achieving real comprehension. This can be easily achieved by using reliable sources such as dictionaries, technical glossaries and encyclopaedia.
Download Guide
Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths or STEM for short, is a term used to refer to these disciplines and an education curriculum that focuses heavily on these subjects. The term is equally used in the United States.

STEM ambassadors are volunteers from a wide range of science, technology, engineering and mathematics related jobs and disciplines across the UK. They give up their time to take part in a very wide range of activities in museums, schools, after-school clubs etc. to promote STEM subjects and encourage a love of learning.
I have been thoroughly enjoying my time as a STEM ambassador with the All About STEM team in Liverpool. They cover the Liverpool, Merseyside and Cheshire area. The All About STEM steam is dedicated to promoting the STEM disciplines through a comprehensive programme of events including the fabulous Big Bang Fair Northwest.

I also regularly receive requests for my attendance in STEM events directly from schools and museums. I aim to fit in as many as I can each year.
GCSE MATHS IN ACTION, 13 DECEMBER 2018, LONDON
This event was amazing! I had the pleasure of speaking to approximately 700 Maths GCSE students at the Emmanuel Centre in London. It was a fabulous day, (and what a beautiful hall).

Checkout the schedule for the day here!
The Big Bang Science Fair North West

On the 10th of July 2018 it was the third time I volunteered  to be a judge at the Big Bang Fair North West, organised and hosted by All About Stem at the Liverpool Exhibition Centre.

It is such an amazing day and several thousand children from primary and secondary schools are expected to attend. The day literally buzzes with aliveness!!
National Science & Media Museum Bradford - Meet the EngineersEvent

On the 7th of February 2018 , I had a fabulous day speaking to several primary school groups about what the words 'engineer' and 'engineering' actually mean! Not everyone realises that the word 'engineer' comes from the Latin word ingenium which means 'genius, or invention'!! How about that!

You may just be able to notice in the photo to the right that the slide on the TV screen has some Roman war machines. These were called 'engines' back then!

"Pupils all had different highlights from the Wonderlab and they have been there 3 times now in the last year!  As a staff, we thought that the children's questions and responses to the Meet the Engineers really showed how  thoughtfully engaged they were.  We thought all the speakers were fantastic and it was great the pupils could meet and speak with these science professionals."
 Fiona Parker:  St Williams Primary
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