Celebrating STEMfest

News - 4th Nov 2022

A group of our very enthusiastic year 8’s enjoyed an action packed day at Plymouth aquarium at STEMfest just before half term.

Students completed a series of workshops during the day all on the theme of Ocean climate.

In the morning an artist from the Barbican theatre led our workshop giving  students the chance to explore the issues of climate change and how this affects our oceans, students then had some time to explore the aquarium exhibits and to consider how different aspects of ocean life will be affected by climate change.

After lunch students had SSTEM related workshops where they learnt about the unmanned vessel ‘the Lancer’ which is going to travel the Atlantic collecting data on ocean surface temperatures. We’ll be able to track its progress over the next months and analyse the data collected back in school.

Students then explored our understanding of past climates by looking at some of the microfossils found in sediment cores from oceans around the world.

Our final workshop was a dragon’s den style challenge where students had to come up with ideas to solve issues associated with use of renewable energy.

The aquarium staff were really impressed with the creativity and collaboration shown by our students throughout the day, great use of character habits.

Part 2 of the STEMfest project will continue this term where students will be preparing for an international climate change conference with some school in the US in the Spring.