PUPILS at St Mark’s West Essex Catholic School took part in a special STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) activity day this week sponsored by the Engineering Development Trust. It was a hands-on day designed to excite and enlighten students on how STEM is fun, interesting and results in a rewarding career. It particularly focused on raising awareness of Engineering, especially with female pupils.

During the day pupils worked in teams to design and build wind turbines and also took part in the Buggy Challenge in which they built a buggy and had to determine how much voltage was required to cover given distances with their machine.

It was a lively, interesting day which not only educated pupils on different sources and uses of energy but also helped them to develop transferable skills such as teamwork, creativity, problem solving and time management.

Participant Hannah Hopkins, Year 7, said, “It was a very good experience. I now have a much better understanding about engineering. At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to do the challenges but working as a team, and supporting each other, helped me to achieve them.”