DETERMINED staff and children from Droitwich’s Witton Middle School refused to let the lockdown stop their annual STEM Day from going ahead and held the event online.
Children learning at home and those who were in school took part in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics day on Friday, completing six activities.
Their tasks were aimed at igniting their curiosity about careers in engineering and developing their evaluation skills.
The day began with two civil engineers – Marla Gillow and Isaac Bamfield – talking about their own careers and inspiring the children to consider the opportunities available.
The participants then analysed a number of high-rise buildings designed by a range of architects before drawing their own towers.
In science, they compared different shaped and sized paper towers to see which were the most rigid.
Finally, the children had to apply what they had discovered to build a skyscraper taller than 50cm using just three sheets of paper and one metre of sticky tape.
In the afternoon, all of the students joined a video call with their class teacher to share what they had created. The models were evaluated and, in some cases, their resistance to destruction was tested.
Emma Crabbe, with daughters in year five and seven, wrote in during the event and said: “Thank you for a very well organised, and so far, inspiring STEM day.
“I’m working upstairs and the girls are working together – I can hear lots of investigation going on with quite a bit of laughter too! Great stuff.”
Science lead Mrs Watson said: “We were determined to ensure this day went ahead – even if we had to adapt the activities for remote learning.
“Children are often motivated by finding out about the career opportunities that are waiting for them and studies have shown that children are more likely to pursue STEM careers when they know that those skills are valued by their families.
“It was lovely today to see families collaborating together on these experiments.
“Hopefully we have inspired some of tomorrow’s engineers.”
