Amazon’s development centre in Edinburgh is encouraging children in Edinburgh to get involved in free STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) resources the company has launched to help students improve their maths skills, learn how to code, and develop their career aspirations over the winter school holidays.
In many circumstances, children’s education has been impacted by COVID-19, with schools and families trying to catch up following lockdown and related closures and absences. One report from Ofsted highlighted the worst-case scenarios, reporting that some school children had lost basic skills and learning as a result of school closures caused by the pandemic.
Speaking on the donation, Graeme Smith, Managing Director at Amazon Development Centre Scotland, said: “At Amazon, we are passionate about education and learning, so we have brought charities and educational institutions together with our Maths4All and Amazon Future Engineer programmes to provide a fun way for children to learn and get a head start with maths, computer science and coding.
“On behalf of the team at Edinburgh, we want to encourage the young learners and families in Edinburgh to make the most of these free and easily-accessible resources to keep learning while having fun over the school holidays”
What is Amazon offering?
· Amazon has expanded Amazon Maths4Allbeyond the free resources for primary school children and now also offers secondary school students free educational materials. Amazon Maths4All offers hundreds of worksheets on Kindle and Fire Tablets, new maths challenges on Alexa, apps and games for school pupils, and given the restrictions in place and uncertainty around the holidays, these resources aim to supplement student’s learning and development. The initiative is run in partnership with several organisations including Open University, Conquer Maths, White Rose Maths, Dr Frost and Cazoom Maths.
· Amazon has also launched the Cyber Robotics Challenge to provide students with a free, three-hour virtual challenge to learn the basics of programming as part of Amazon Future Engineer. Recommended for anyone aged eight and above, young learners are asked to code an Amazon Hercules robot to deliver a friend’s birthday present on time. This challenge is the first of its kind and teaches students coding and computer science in a real-world setting.
· With Alexa, you can also open the skill ‘Maths Coach’, which helps your mathematical brain stay active with five levels of difficulty. To get started, use a phrase like “Alexa, ask the Maths Coach to start a test” or “Alexa, ask the Maths Coach for a hard addition test”. For some light-hearted learning you can also ask “Alexa, tell me a fact about maths?”, “Alexa, tell me a joke about maths” or “Alexa, rap about pi”.
· Amazon has also just launched The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize, delivered by Nesta Challenges, which calls on young bright minds to put their passion for STEM subjects to the test by creating and developing technological innovations to help solve some of the world’s biggest issues from climate change to aging populations.
The programme aims to reach students aged 11-16 across the UK and hopes to provide young people from all backgrounds with an introduction to the possibilities of entrepreneurship in STEM and children can form team and enter the virtual competition until 12 February.
A team of Trinity Academy S3 pupils are the Scottish winners of Shell’s Bright Ideas competition, doubling up on last year’s success. The students’ Design and Technology Teacher, Trinity’s STEM Co-ordinator FLORENCE DONALDSON (pictured below (right) with the girls), explains all:
Wow! We have done it again, Shell Bright Ideas Scottish Winners for the second year in a row! What a phenomenal achievement!
In what has been an undoubtedly challenging time for all our students, five S3 girls worked tirelessly with their teacher Florence Donaldson throughout Lockdown to put together their outstanding proposal for Café Earth.
A huge congratulations to our fantastic S3 Design Team:
Ada Hayden-Joiner
Ava McKie
Cara Burnet
Iris Hughes
Rachel Baxendale
The Bright Ideas Challenge, which is organised by Shell, invited students to imagine what the world will be like in 30 years’ time, and to put their science, technology, engineering and maths skills to work to put together a proposal that would make the world a better place to live.
By 2050 there will be more than 9 billion people on Earth creating a need for 50% more energy than today. The competition asks pupils from across the UK to imagine innovative solutions to the energy challenges facing cities of the future.
The team researched the problem of sourcing food in a sustainable manner within cities. By using their science, technology, engineering knowledge, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills, they developed an innovative idea to solve the problem.
Their solution was create an eco-friendly café to help make our cities be cleaner and more energy efficient by utilising grants from the government and environmental charities to get started and with help from renewable energy professionals to ensure the energy produced is effective and safe.
Professional farmers, gardeners, chefs and waiting staff will make Café Earth run smoothly.
Most importantly, we will need the community: the community will keep our café running by coming to have a coffee, volunteer on our farm or visit Café Earth on a school trip.
Café Earth will serve the community. It will benefit everyone in the community, including families, teens, students and the elderly. The café will sell healthy affordable options.
The greenery around our café from our farms will provide short-term clean air. The plants will change the carbon dioxide we exhale into fresh oxygen. Our café will not contribute to harmful greenhouse gases. Not using fossil fuels will reduce carbon and make long term clean air.
Café Earth will also help businesses in the area. Products and from local businesses will be sold in the shop and produce we cannot grow ourselves will be bought from nearby farms. Finally, a part of our profits will feed back to community charities.
If you are interested, the full proposal for Café Earth can be found in the News section on Trinity Academy’s website.
The entry was Scotland’s winner, which means we will received £4,000 for our school to really bring our technology lessons to life, along with the pupil’s very own STEM themed prize packs to learn more about science, technology and engineering.
We are all incredibly proud of the girls achievements and we can only hope it inspires other young people to get excited about how designers, scientists, engineers and everyone in the technologies industries can make a difference.
A science education programme is turning social distancing into an opportunity for school pupils and teachers to spend their summer learning online.
The Summer STEM Academy www.stemacademyscotland.org is making workshops on a wide variety of science and engineering topics available online for free from Monday 15 June.
Led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier, it features 26 workshops containing videos and activities for teachers, pupils and wider school communities.
All but one involve a video introduction from an expert to a unique project which can be done at home and an explanation of the science behind it. Each of the workshops offer a worksheet to guide learners through activities and experiments such as designing racing cars and measuring the speed of sound.
Volunteers from Edinburgh Napier and the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Strathclyde have crafted workshop activities on topics including robotics, biodiversity and space colonisation.
Edinburgh Napier’s Professor Mark Huxham (above) has organised activities based on biodiversity, and there is also the use of coding to design and control robots with the computer engineering team, and the use of CAD/CAM software to design F1 cars with industry leading experts and Edinburgh Napier engineers in a schools challenge.
Representatives from organisations including the SS Explorer, BioCity UK, Heart of Midlothian FC, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Academy of Engineering have also contributed their expertise on aeronautical engineering, life sciences, sports science, climate change and the science of sound.
Teachers and students will also have the opportunity to brush up on new science teaching skills with a workshop provided by the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Connecting STEM Teachers initiative. They’ll also have the chance to design their own science teaching resources during a workshop provided by Timstar UK and the WF Education group.
Andrew Gallacher, Head of Teacher Education at Edinburgh Napier, said: “Even three months ago the idea of organising a major Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths event and placing it online would have seemed ambitious.
“However, this is exactly what we have done with the Summer STEM Academy. It represents a fantastic opportunity for pupils, teachers, academics and business innovators to explore stimulating workshops that are structured to offer blended learning and enthuse participants of all ages.
“Such is the global appetite for such an event that the organisers have now received countless information requests from many countries that include Japan, South Korea and the USA.”
The Summer STEM Academy was launched in 2018 and brought high school pupils from 13 local authorities to locations in and around Glasgow, along with registered and probationer primary and secondary teachers.
Follow-up interviews with participants found that both pupils and teachers were significantly more engaged with science, and a reduction in anxiety about both learning and teaching STEM subjects.
Dr Margaret Ritchie, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry, has organised each of the Summer STEM Academy events and led the effort to put this year’s projects online.
Dr Ritchie said: “The Summer STEM Academy programme was built from the ground up to create quality partnerships between universities, schools and businesses and find new ways for them to benefit from working together.
“It gives students the chance to see academia and industry up close, student teachers the chance to learn new methods of teaching, and academics and industry professionals the chance to reach out to younger people and shape their understanding of how science and business intersect.
“The coronavirus turned our plans for the third year of the Summer STEM Academy upside-down, but it’s also given us the opportunity to open up our workshops and reach a much bigger audience by putting them online. We also hope that it will keep participants engaged and interested in science while schools remain closed, and ensure they’re motivated to learn when schools reopen.
“Our content comes from volunteers across a broad spectrum of backgrounds, from an undergraduate student through academics to industry veterans. They’ve given us a lot of great content for school pupils and student teachers alike, and we’re really excited to make it available for them to explore over the summer.”
Class Of Your Own (‘COYO’) is a social business dedicated to inspiring young people and their teachers to discover built environment careers through bespoke STEM education.
Our flagship ‘Design Engineer Construct’ learning programme has enabled hundreds of students to enter university and the world of work with excellent knowledge and skills and a genuine appetite for the sector.
Every year, Class Of Your Own launches an inter-school challenge to inspire young architecture, engineering and construction professionals to create an exciting design project.
This year, to celebrate our long established relationship with Heriot Watt University and the amazing achievement of Team Esteem in the Solar Decathlon Middle East, we decided to create a challenge that focused on the education of the people who might live in a solar house in Dubai.
Could young people design a learning centre to teach a whole community how to think and live green …? And how would the climate and location impact the design?
The challenge was launched at the beginning of March, but when national procurement framework Scape Group put out a call for ideas to help the hundreds of 14/15 year olds who would miss out on work experience due to Covid-19, they were pointed in COYO’s direction.
Work on our pilot virtual work experience programme had just concluded, so it was great to say: “we can help!” I immediately contacted my good friends, Associate Professor in Architecture Alex MacLaren and HWU Team Esteem members, to ask for their help.
Within a few weeks, academics and undergraduates had put together a series of videos to support an extraordinary virtual work experience programme hosted on the pioneering ‘Learn Live’ platform from 18th – 22nd May.
This ‘safe space’ enabled 2000 young people across the UK to experience an extraordinary week by accessing these fantastic, informative broadcasts and ‘chatting’ with university and industry ambassadors in an entirely safe environment.
I’m incredibly proud of all that we’ve all achieved together – the feedback from students, teachers and parents has been fantastic. It’s been an amazing collaboration and Heriot Watt University’s input, and impact, has been unbelievable. I’m honoured to be part of such a great institution.
Jairis Alvarez Trujillo
Project Leader Alison (follow website for more information):
My COYO experience was extremely rewarding, the students brought up some very interesting points and often made me think hard to answer their questions. Seeing the student’s creativity in using 3D modelling outside of software Team Esteem would typically uselike Sims and Minecraft impressed me a lotand showed their commitment to the project.
I was also impressed by the standard of a lot of the questions we were asked, which showed their enthusiasm and willingness to learn about the sustainable methods which Team Esteem are looking to employ in our project.
Sonia Piorek:
Working remotely is a challenge in a way. I moved back to my parents for the epidemics so to the place where I spent time when I am free. Thus, it is difficult to motivate myself to wake up early everyday and focus on tasks. Nevertheless, it saves me a lot of time which I usually spend on commuting.
There are also pros and cons of being far from the University – many software and programs are accessible only on University’s PCs. However, due to the special conditions nowadays many companies allow us to install their products for free for some period, especially due to our partnerships between companies and Team ESTEEM.
Pietro Donatelli:
Shifting quickly to the virtual experience of working remotely was a challenge for ESTEEM Members. As a team, one of our greatest commitments were surely our recurrent meetings held on campus where we had the chance to discuss, engage and solve problems collectively.
Luckily, we tried to keep our weekly schedule as intact as possible and our sponsors flexibly moved to virtual meetings as well, making the whole process easier. To me, working remotely has become the new normal, but I’m not going to lie, it’s easier to forget your ‘virtual’ schedule than a live meeting.
For this reason, I will always be grateful to Outlook Calendar for its 15 minutes reminder.
An Edinburgh College HND Engineering Systems student has been awarded a scholarship which will see her working alongside College staff to inspire thousands of pupils to consider STEM careers.
Kayla Ho, who studies at the College’s Midlothian Campus, has been named the David Doig Foundation STEM scholar for 2020 following a successful interview. Kayla’s role is to help deliver the College’s STEM Inspiration Experience programme to P7, S1 and S2 pupils for the remainder of term 2019/20.
The Edinburgh College Development Trust originally received funding from the David Doig Foundation to run the scholarship in 2018. Kayla is the second scholar and will use the opportunity to boost her CV and gain work experience in working as part of a team and with young people from across the region.
Nineteen-year-old Kayla will work with College staff each week to deliver STEM Inspiration Days where pupils take part in a range of activities such as:
Exploring gravity and g-force. Students launch eggs attached to parachutes from height to see which ones survive. This uses everyday objects to make the science tangible, accessible, interactive and fun.
The Bloodhound Rocket Car Challenge. This is part of the national engagement project around the Bloodhound land-speed record attempt, giving pupils the opportunity to design, build and race their own rocket cars. They learn about physics, aerodynamics, design and the mechanisms of speed.
Bridge building where pupils design and build a two-foot cardboard bridge and test it using a heavy car model.
Embedded within each of these sessions is the importance of Maths and its application in Engineering and Science.
Gillian Doig, who founded the David Doig Foundation in memory of her late husband who was an alumnus of Telford College, said: “Congratulations to Kayla on becoming our second STEM scholar.
“We’re very proud to fund this project which will bring benefits to Kayla in terms of work experience but also to so many young people across Edinburgh and Lothians.
“My late husband was a champion of, engineering, education and social responsibility and this scholarship represents this brilliantly. We look forward to hearing how Kayla progresses through her scholarship, as well as her future career.”
Kayla, who is from Edinburgh, said: “It’s brilliant to be this year’s STEM scholar. I’ve had previous experience with working with young people, but the opportunity to teach them STEM and Engineering-related disciplines is new and exciting, and will be great for my CV.”
Looking to the future, Kayla is hoping to progress to Edinburgh Napier University where she will go into the third year of an Energy and Environmental Engineering course and hopes to secure work in the fast-growing Scottish renewables sector.
She said: “With Scotland, and the world, moving to renewable energy sources, it made sense to pursue this career path. I want to be able to discover new ground-breaking ways of working and make the world a better place.”
How Edinburgh Science Learning gets pupils into STEM with Careers Hive
Careers Hive is a free careers education event from Edinburgh Science Learning aimed at S1-S3 pupils which takes place at the National Museum of Scotland from 24th to 29th February 2020 with Saturday 29th being a general public Open Day.
Through a series of hands-on activities and discussions with young STEM professionals, Careers Hive provides students with new ways of thinking about their future careers.
This year’s programme includes discussions with the founder and director of Fodilicious, the UK’s first certified convenience foods that help those with IBS. Joining them is the founder of Seawater Solutions, whose idea of growing food with seawater addresses the degradation of land and the loss of biodiversity.
Over 3500 pupils from 40 schools around Scotland will take part in Careers Hive in 2020.
To further encourage teachers to engage with their students about STEM subjects, Careers Hive offers a free Teacher Afternoon on Friday 28 February.
Careers Hive is an annual, week-long free event run by Edinburgh Science Learning, the education arm of Edinburgh Science Foundation and one of the UK’s leaders in science education.
The organisation delivers projects to and for teachers and schools throughout the year which have reached more than a million pupils around Scotland over the past three decades.
Initially developed in 2016, Careers Hive inspires S1-S3 pupils to pursue a STEM-based (science, technology, engineering and maths) career through hands-on activities, workshops and discussions STEM professionals who are early in their careers. The event is designed to help young people realise what skills they possess that might be useful in a STEM career through fun and engaging workshops and activities,
This year the event takes place between 24 and 29 February at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and will welcome over 3500 pupils from 40 schools all around Scotland. The event is now fully booked with school visits but audiences are encouraged to visit the Museum on Saturday 29 February between 11am and 4pm which is the Careers Hive Open Day.
Joan Davidson, Head of Learning at Edinburgh Science, said: “We are so excited to be welcoming over 3500 of Scotland’s young people to the National Museum of Scotland for Careers Hive this February.
“Our aim over the course of the week is to open their eyes to the incredible opportunities available to them through their lives if they continue to study science, technologies and maths at school.
“We hope that by taking part in our massive range of engaging, hands-on activities and by chatting to professionals from the science, tech, engineering and maths industries that are early in their careers, they will think about some of the fascinating jobs that can be open to them in the future and the different education and career paths that lead there.”
EXPERIENCE STEM
Students get hands-on with STEM careers in the Grand Gallery with four themed zones. Throughout each zone students engage with professionals about their jobs, and experience tasks and activities related to different fields.
One of them is Hannah Costello, a British Heart Foundation-funded researcher at the University of Edinburgh, currently in the third year of a four-year PhD with the charity. High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for heart and circulatory disease in Scotland and Hannah’s research investigates the effects of stress and salt on blood pressure.
The zones and some of the activities are:
Build and Connect looks at our connections through the internet, keeping transport systems running smoothly, designing homes for a growing population and creating happy communities. This includes an activity showing how machines can run a production line efficiently, and engines that participants can take apart to see their inner workings.
Design and Play illustrates how good design can make a complicated task simple, how to turn an idea into reality, creating and manipulating our digital environments and how coding is changing the world; this includes a special appearance from Robotical’s Marty the Robot, a programmable robot with character.
Energy and Environment focuses on finding the right mix of energy sources from the environment, smarter ways to distribute energy and technologies that help create clean and green energy; and an augmented reality mapping activity to show how windfarm sites are developed and an activity measuring the infra-red radiation escaping from models to show how we can reduce the carbon footprint of our buildings.
Heal and Feed examines technology in health and wellbeing and the challenges around getting water where it is needed, feeding a growing population and dealing with disease and epidemics. As part of this, pupils will perform knee, head or abdomen surgery using real-life surgical equipment in E.R. Scottish Water will also be presenting a new activity showing how water gets to our taps and how to deal with waste.
At the centre of the exhibition the Think Tank, supported by Wheatley Foundation, hosts a ‘speed meet-up’ careers activity where students get face-to-face with those in the early stages of a STEM career, giving them the chance to hear about experiences and ask questions.
LIFE AFTER LEAVING SCHOOL supported by Royal Bank of Scotland
Students partake in a panel discussion with young STEM professionals to learn about their jobs, break stigmas and have their own say on important issues in the industry today.
Among others, this year’s line-up includes:
Yanik Nyberg, founder of Seawater Solutions. After seeing the destructive impacts of conventional agriculture and the threat of rising sea-levels in Scotland, Africa and Asia, Yanik came up with the idea of growing food with seawater to address the degradation of land and the loss of biodiversity. This system of farming creates wetland ecosystems on which food can be grown, while carbon is captured at a rate of up to 40 times higher than the same area of rainforest, and profits are over eight times more profitable than the average potato field.
Pooja Jain came to Scotland in 2011 to do a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences, followed by a master’s degree in Neuroscience by Research at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests focused on “cognitive characteristics and interventions for neurological disorders”, including lab-based research into various aspects of Alzheimer’s disease. This interest now drives her business, Edinburgh-based CogniHealth, which is developing a “digital companion” called CogniCare for helping people with dementia and their carers.
Lauren Leisk is the founder and director of award-winning food start up Fodilicious Ltd. The young entrepreneur and Business Management graduate has valuable experience in the food industry. After suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) for many years, Lauren started Fodilicious to bring the UK’s first certified convenience foods to market helping those with IBS and gut health to find products for their diet that are also delicious and healthy for anyone to enjoy, thus fulfilling a huge gap in the UK free from food industry.
Michael Harkins, the Founder of Turtle Pack, an award-winning swimming aid for children 2+. Having graduated from Heriot-Watt University and worked as a swimming instructor for over a decade, Michael started Turtle Pack in 2015. “Swimming isn’t just a sport – it’s a life skill. I’ve always been passionate about teaching children to swim, whether that’s in lessons or by using Turtle Pack. The tools out there for parents and swimming instructors haven’t really changed in decades, but we understand so much more now about how children best learn new skills.”
An important goal of Careers Hive is to raise awareness amongst young people that there is not a set education or career path they have to follow to work within STEM industries. Many STEM professionals may have a background in something completely different, but they can still use those skills towards a successful science, tech, engineering or maths career.
There will be several speakers from Royal Bank of Scotland at the event, some of whom have not entered their current roles in tech through traditional career paths.
For example, one speaker, Michaela, originally graduated with a degree in Classical Music but after spending time working in university recruitment and admissions, she decided to begin to study towards a Computing and IT degree with the Open University in her spare time. She now works in the bank’s Digital A.I. team as a technical analyst.
SKILLS GATEWAY
The skills gateway workshop will see students explore how the strengths, skills and interests they have and will develop at school will help them tackle challenges in their future workplaces, and get them to think about how to relate the jobs of the future to the challenges of the years to come.
The informal environment simulates a fun and innovative workplace, where people with different strengths and skills work collaboratively and creatively to share ideas and solve challenges.
To encourage teachers to work with their students on STEM subjects, Careers Hive is hosting a Teachers Afternoon on Friday 28 February between 1.30pm and 3.30pm at the National Museum of Scotland.
The afternoon is open to all teachers, with different sessions for primary and secondary educators.
Edinburgh-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford has become headline sponsor of Edinburgh Science Learning, the education arm of educational charity Edinburgh Science who also produces the world’s first and Europe’s biggest science festival.
To mark the occasion, Samantha Pattman, Sponsorship Manager at Baillie Gifford joined Joan Davidson, Head of Learning at Edinburgh Science at Victoria Primary School in Edinburgh where P2 pupils took part in a special preview of Generation Science workshop Bricks and Blocks: a hands-on introduction to programming.
Using laptops and simple drag-and-drop coding, pupils learn about robotics, coding and problem solving.
Joan Davidson, Head of Learning at Edinburgh Science said: “We are extremely pleased to be continuing to work with Baillie Gifford who now become the headline sponsor of Edinburgh Science Learning.
“Their invaluable support will go towards our flagship education projects, Generation Science and Careers Hive, as well as enabling more primary school children to access the Edinburgh Science Festival at City Art Centre Open Days.
“It will also help us deliver our science education projects in the local community.
“Our vision is a world where the value of STEM is recognised and celebrated, in order to achieve a brighter and more sustainable future. With 30 years of experience delivering high-quality engaging shows and workshops, we are a leader in our field, and we are thrilled to have Baillie Gifford supporting us in this ambition.”
Samantha Pattman, Baillie Gifford’s Sponsorship Manager said: “Baillie Gifford is delighted to be headline sponsor for Edinburgh Science Learning. Headquartered in Edinburgh, the firm is proud to play an active role in its community by supporting a diverse variety of projects across festivals and the arts, education and social inclusion.
“As science, technology, engineering and maths roles struggle to be filled and the breadth of STEM-related prospects grow, inspiring young people in science has never been more important.”
Edinburgh Science Learning is one of the UK’s leading science outreach providers and delivers shows, workshops and interactive activities to schools throughout the year. Generation Science is the largest primary science touring programme and over the past three decades it has reached over 1 million pupils around Scotland.
Baillie Gifford’s support of Edinburgh Science Learning will go towards:
1. Generation Science – a programme that brings unique and inspiring science lessons directly to classrooms all over Scotland with highly interactive shows and hands-on workshops. The tour visits schools across Scotland from February to June each year. This year’s offer includes 10 shows and workshops, e.g. brand-new Creative Coding which sees pupils coding their very own dancing robot or Body Builders where students are taken on a journey through our bodily systems with colourful props and hands-on demonstrations.
The spring tour of Generation Science starts on 17 February and will see trained science communicators create interactive and fun environments in nurseries and P1-P7 classrooms and gym halls all over the country. Generation Science is a vital part of the Scottish Government’s STEM strategy for its support of students’ and teachers’ science education in the local authorities.
2. Careers Hive – an immersive careers education event designed to give students in S1-S3 a new way to think about their futures. It highlights the opportunities available to those who study STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) through participatory activities, discussions with early careers STEM professionals and skills workshops. Careers Hive 2020 runs from 24–29 February at the National Museum of Scotland with a public open day on Saturday 29 February.
3. City Art Centre Open Days – on 1 and 2 April, hundreds of pupils from several Edinburgh schools will experience an exclusive preview of the Edinburgh Science Festival’s flagship family venue ahead of its opening to Festival audiences on 4 April.
With five floors to explore, this unique science playground offers several bookable workshops as well as drop-in activities, including ER where children perform a knee, abdomen or brain surgery, Ocean Constructors where they build an exploratory underwater craft or Buzz about bees, teaching all about the importance of bees to the environment and human existence.
Thanks to the support from Baillie Gifford, the Open Days initiative was introduced in 2019 and saw over 400 pupils from 8 Edinburgh schools enjoying the City Art Centre on 3 and 4 April last year.
4. Community Engagement – Edinburgh Science Learning’s projects also include bespoke workshops and activities for various age groups which are developed in close partnership with community partners across Edinburgh.
Award-winning housebuilder Urban Union is fostering STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) talent among primary pupils in north Edinburgh by running a competition designed to test innovation and creativity.
The competition with Pirniehall Primary, which is located less than a mile from Urban Union and the city council’s Pennywell Living development, saw primary 4 – 7 pupils create house models from scratch using woodwork skills.
24 Pupils picked up awards for their efforts in architectural design, property layout and execution of the marketing brochure.
Ross Neilson, STEM coordinator at Pirniehall Primary School said: “Working with Urban Union on this competition has been a fantastic way to bring the lessons the children have learnt in class to life.
“Through building the wooden models of their house designs, the pupils have learned how to safely cut with saws, measure accurately and glue their structures together. They also learned how to sell these designs, creating architectural drawings and marketing materials for brochures.
“The team at Urban Union came in to give a presentation and provide further insight into the construction industry, demonstrating to pupils how the skills they are learning in class translate into working life.”
STEM is a curriculum which groups subjects science, technology, engineering and maths together, teaching them in an interdisciplinary and applied approach rather than as four separate subjects.
Lauren Jenkins, Architect at Barton Willmore said: “It has been a great experience working with the pupils of Pirniehall Primary School – the work that the children put in was incredible and some of the designs were really incredible.
“It was a particularly special activity for me to support – while at primary school I took part in a similar workshop and the experience and learnings I took from it inspired me to go on to train to become an architect. I hope that we’ve managed to inspire future generations of architects from the work we’ve carried out at Pirniehall.”
Neil McKay, Managing Director at Urban Union said: “At Urban Union we are always looking for ways to engage with the schools, be that through sponsorships, donations or with a more hands on approach like this competition.
“It has been rewarding to see the amazing designs of the pupils at Pirniehall Primary. Working with the school to help give context to its STEM curriculum has been a remarkable experience and one that we hope to replicate.
“Huge congratulations to all of the winners today. We have seen some amazing talent and there is certainly a bright future ahead for the pupils at Pirniehall Primary.”
Pennywell living is part of a housing-led regeneration programme being delivered through a partnership between the City of Edinburgh Council and Urban Union. It is located only two miles from Edinburgh City Centre and is in the catchment area of a number of great local primary and secondary schools.
The development is in prime position to make the most of the many shops, bars and restaurants the capital has to offer and has a wealth of useful amenities in the area, making it perfect for young professionals and families.
