Celebrating Engineering and STEM

Engineering and STEM Day 2021/2022

This year we celebrated the STEM subjects with the theme for the day being 'Journeys'. There were fascinating talks and workshops given by parents who work in STEM careers and also by Bright Sparks, our Science after-school club providor. We are very grateful to those who took time out to run these. The children found out about satellites, rockets, medicines, and vaccines. They also found out more about the work at Culham Science Centre, and used a robotic arm.

STEM Week 2018/2019

What an amazing STEM week we had! It was very busy with some excellent assemblies, talks, competitions and workshops.

The week started off with an assembly to introduce the theme of machines and the number 25 to tie in with the school’s 25th anniversary. We welcomed parents and would like to thank them for taking the time to share their experiences with us. The children also enjoyed an exciting ‘Flying Machines’ assembly by Bright Sparks, our after school provider.

Throughout the week the children from Reception to Year 5 have been busy exploring marble runs and trying to keep the marble rolling for as long as possible. This was also the theme for our successful Family Fun Event where families competed to be the best engineers. Their designs were wonderfully varied and congratulations go to Eleanor Stone’s family, ‘The Beginners’, who managed to keep their marble rolling for over 8 seconds.

On Thursday, children from Reception to Year 3 had lots of fun with a Mathemagician who intrigued them with number tricks using the number 25. He also used machines ranging from watches to hair dryers in his tricks to demonstrate how Maths and Science are linked.

All the children from Year 1 to Year 6 were invited to take part in a Science Poetry writing competition. Having had a sneaky peak at the entries I am sure we will do well in this competition. Good luck everyone!

There were fascinating talks and workshops given by parents who work in STEM careers. We are very grateful to those who took time out to run these. The children made some real satellites from a deconstructed diagram, they completed a grip strength activity, learned about the design process of cars, discovered more about forces and boats, thought about oils and lubricants in engines, found out more about the work at Culham Science Centre and used a robotic arm.

All children in Year 1 to Year 6 took part in the 'Big Science Event', a county competition run by Science Oxford. The aim of the competition is to encourage children to devise, carry out and communicate scientific questions that interest them. Pupils worked in small teams, in their Science lessons, to plan and carry out their investigations. Each group produced a poster based on their experiment and these were displayed in the Lantern Hall during STEM Week. The standard was extremely high with some fantastic scientific enquiry from across the school. Well done to everyone for their excellent and informative posters. The three winning groups will be announced next week and will be entered into the next stage of the county competition where they will be interviewed by a judge from Science Oxford. Let's hope that one of our teams is put forward to represent Chandlings in the finals as in previous years.

Lastly, each class visited our very popular Machines Museum, which featured a range of machines from the past. Here, children took part in a quiz which required them to use their observational skills to identify machines from close-up photographs. The winning class from each year will win a picnic under their year group tree during the Summer Term!

STEM Week 2017/2018

STEM Week 2018 started off with a fantastic assembly introducing STEM. The children learnt how the STEM subjects at school are used within some of the STEM careers. Parents in STEM careers were interviewed and shared their interesting stories with us. Another great assembly, which the children thoroughly enjoyed, was an excellent ‘Potions Under Pressure’ Show by Curiosity Box. We saw some interesting experiments with exploding rockets and learnt about exothermic reactions.

The Pre-prep children were treated to a session based on Money with the Mathmagician. The Nursery children were visited by the Mini Professor, wore lab coats and found out about chemical reactions.

There were two Science based school trips during the week. Year 4 visited Crocodiles of the World to learn about adaptations and habitats. They saw many types of crocodiles and even managed to touch an alligator, snake and tortoise. Year 2 visited Marwell Zoo and found about different habitats. Despite the rain they saw many animals including a tiger and kangaroo.

There were some excellent talks and workshops run by parents and people who work in STEM careers. The children made some real satellites from a deconstructed diagram, they completed a grip strength activity, learnt about a project to clear up space debris, thought about fusion, Maths and engineering, found out about robotics used in the car industry, and finally Year 2 and Year 3 learnt how to code through a jam sandwich activity.

Other competitions included a whole school Science Poetry writing competition. Also, each class was invited to take part in a class STEM quiz where they had to use their observational skills. The winning class from each year have won a picnic under their year group tree during the Summer Term.

The week ended with some pop-up STEM stalls where the children met parents who work in STEM careers and found out about Space and our climate.

A busy and fun filled week where the children were provided with some amazing learning opportunities.

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