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STEM is back @ LPA!

Our first STEM event this academic year took place on Friday 17th September, run by three of our former LPA students; Nathan Ellmer, Naeema Miah and Rhiannon Pirt. The trio have set up a STEM event team outside of their careers and post-graduation studies and we were lucky enough to be the first school to experience the fun! It is inspiring to see that some of our ex students are now excelling in careers including data analysis, health and safety and studying towards a PhD in engineering! It was a brilliant opportunity for our current students to not only get to grips with STEM fun, but to also see where life after LPA can take them.
Nathan, Naeema and Rhiannon planned, organised and very professionally delivered an exciting engineering session, whereby they challenged a year 9 class to build a structure from scratch, using only spaghetti and marshmallows. The main success criterion was that it needed to hold as much mass as possible.
Our year 9’s got stuck into the task with full enthusiasm and engagement, putting their ideas and skills to the test. They worked excellently in their teams and all got hands on with carefully placing their spaghetti sticks and marshmallows together. It was fascinating to see that every group had a completely different structure!
At intervals during the session, Nathan, Naeema and Rhiannon reviewed each groups’ structure and discussed how triangles and trusses can lead to a much stronger build. This encouraged students to rebuild or tweak their towers to perfection.
The grand finale was to test the strength of each build, leaving the winning team with a sweet treat to celebrate! Our year 9’s had a fantastic time and certainly learnt a lot about the skills of an engineer.
A huge thank you to our STEM event guests and well done to the winning team!

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