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.
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:
"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
"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
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.
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.
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!!
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!
