Getting Engineers out There and Out on the Street
Funded by Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious Grant for engineers to develop public engagement skills and share their passion for engineering also aims to raise awareness with young people in disadvantaged areas to appreciate the value of engineering in everyday life.
In order to achieve this aspect of our project aims and objectives by delivering four workshops into Sheffield City Region’s schools, two of which will include Sheffield Park Academy.
We are keen to recruit at least four engineers, women and men, for each of these two workshops – engineers who we have recruited to our project to date include The University of Sheffield’s Tribology Department, IBM and Workmachines computer engineers.
We are offering two workshops, both of which are 2-part events covering the National Curriculum’s KS2 and KS3 objectives in a hands-on approach for children to learn through play by working individually and small groups with experts as guides, to create electrical circuits using the Cambridge brain box kit and build Jitterbugs which they will race against their peers.
The second part of these workshops will use computer software called “Scratch” which we will use to teach the children the basics of computer coding, game design working in small groups and will then use a Makey Makey device to demonstrate circuit uses in the form of a computer controller and is designed to cross link the national curriculum to ICT.
At KS3 of the National Curriculum, this workshop will run on similar lines and include “AI car” computer software developed by IBM which teaches children the basics of computer coding, game design and, by using a series of demands, to direct a car around a track.
With these methods, children will learn to explore how computer coding works. By programming their own car to go around a track and competing against their peers, they will also learn how to control the car and amend coding to keep their car on the track and travelling in the right direction. This project covers the majority of the energy and electricity objectives of the science national curriculum for KS3 with many aspects of the ICT national curriculum.
Key national curriculum science – scientific thinking 1.1a-b, applications and implications of science 1.2a and practical & enquiry skills 2.1 a and c.
Time commitment: 2 hours briefing and training followed two or three weeks later by 2 hours event delivery
Skills training: TBC – probably towards the end of October or early November
Workshop delivery: 10.00am – 12.00 noon on 20th November followed by a short reflective debrief.
