Tag Archives: STEM

Alford Academy

Alford Academy STEM challenge

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On Friday 7 June 2013, Alford Academy hosted another highly innovative STEM Challenge which this time focused on S6 involvement, and linked to the Aberdeenshire initiative, “Be Part of the Picture”.  The Challenge formed a part of the S6 Induction Event coordinated by Mrs S Ogilvie (Acting Depute Headteacher and PT Faculty Modern Languages).

Mrs Jan Holt (PT Faculty Business Education and Computing) designed the event and led a multidisciplinary team from Art and Design (Mr Moffat), Physics (Mrs Booth), Textiles (Mrs Woolley),  Computing Science (Mr Scott), Business Education (Mrs Taylor),  Mathematics (Mr Kerr) and HWB (Mr Cruickshank).  Additional support across these areas was provided by Mr. A Spiers. The Challenge also partnered with The Robert Gordon University School of Computing Science and Digital Media, where Professor P. Holt, Dr. D. Doolan and Mr. J. McGregor led microcontrol and programming workshops.

Pupils were asked to express positive things about Aberdeenshire; people, place and environment around the themes of eFashion, Mobile Visualisation and Parallel Computation.  Activities included designing and making LED bracelets –  clothing with sewn in conductive materials (batteries included!) –  3D Electronic Billboards -constructed from Lego and controlled through Scratch – and iPad array displays.

Workshops were followed by group brainstorming sessions with presentations showing how the technologies could be used to contribute to “Be Part Of The Picture”.  Ideas ranged from putting on an eFashion show with wearables designed around Nature in Aberdeenshire, to using 3D Lego models to capture the sophistication of Energy Technology.  Feedback from pupils and staff was very positive and we look forward to next phase of this initiative.

Alford Academy, Alford Cluster

2013 Transition Event at Alford Academy

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WeDo Stories From Scratch at Alford Academy
As part of the primary to secondary transition programme, Alford Academy hosted a P7 STEM Challenge for 120 primary pupils on 10th May 2013. The event had at its core the tradition of Storytelling but through the idea of construction, construction, construction!  The day was organised to provide a set of seamlessly integrated activities that involved building 3D Lego characters, constructing storyboards, coding computer programs with interface and control to the Lego objects; all to tell ‘living’ stories.   The Games Hall was transformed into a hive of workstations equipped with writing materials, storyboards, display boards, laptops and lego kits at which groups of up to 7 pupils could work together on the construction of their living stories.  As pupils got to grips with the task, 14 of our S3 pupils dressed in Disney themed costumes took charge and taught the youngsters how to create simple animations in Scratch, use of the school laptops and ways of interfacing and controlling the lego characters.  S5/6 pupils also came along to assist Mrs Lees and Guidance staff with school tours.  The WeDo storytelling event was planned and coordinated by Mrs Holt, PT Faculty Business Education and Computing, who was joined by an interdisciplinary team from Business Education (Mrs Taylor), Computing Science (Mr Scott), Modern Languages (Mrs Barclay), Mathematics (Mr Kerr), Physical Education (Mr Cruickshank), English (Mrs Shearer) and Drama and Media Studies (Mr Coston). Mrs Shearer and Mr Coston led the storyboarding activity and provided opportunities for pupils to talk about and share their ideas with all involved.  Final animations were judged and pupils received awards according to how well they had worked as a team, the quality of story design and construction and the animated control of the lego WeDo; all of which mapped to core skills in literacy, numeracy and health and well being.   Feedback has been very positive and the organising team are delighted with the outcome.  Our P7 pupils can pat themselves on the back for their excellent participation and say with pride: Didn’t WeDo well! 

STEM activities at Alford Academy
Kemnay Academy, Mintlaw Cluster

Mintlaw and Kemnay Academies scooping awards in National Event

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Kemnay Academy’s ROV team came third once again in a hotly contested competition. The scores were very close between the top 3 and no one really knew what the outcome would be until the announcements were made. Mintlaw Academy won and Menzieshill High from Dundee came second.
The project was sponsored by BP and each entry received £300 to cover the costs of the project.
The Kemnay team comprised  S6 students, Peter Mitchell, Gavin Mackenzie and Martin Thomson and S5 student, Liam Miller, won £200 as a prize and certificates.

Kennethmont School

STEM – Scottish Engineering Leaders Award – Kennethmont

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Two pupils from Kennethmont Primary School were shortlisted to as finalists in the STEM Scottish Engineering Leaders Award. 

As part of the competition  all pupils in the school were involved in researching science, technology, maths  and engineering initiatives  in Scotland; interviewing volunteer engineers who attended the school; and  4 lucky pupils enjoyed a day out to BP in Dyce where they were involved in interviewing a range of  engineers and video conferencing with engineers on an oil platform.   This day out was a great experience for the pupils and they were inspired by a range of engineers and also inspired the engineers. The interview questions the pupils came up with were thought provoking and interesting.

From their research and interviews pupils then had to either write or draw about what they would invent if they were a young engineer in Scotland today.   The designs and inventions were many and varied and certainly set us thinking.  Pupils enjoyed the work for the competition and were excited about their entries. 

 To our great delight two of our pupils were shortlisted for a special mention and another pupil’s design was used in the invitations to the prizewinning event.  The shortlisted entries were put on display at the Barony in Glasgow and pupils and parents received a special certificate and invitation to the event. 

Copy of a letter re-competition

Dear Annabel,

The judging took place within the last 24 hours and out of over 1500 entries only 155 were shortlisted which included Kirsten Henderson and Arwen Scott from which 10 winners were selected. 

Although Kirsten Henderson and Arwen Scott were not selected as one of the 10 winners their work will be displayed with all other shortlisted entries in The Barony on 14th (by invite only) and over the weekend of 15th and 16th.

I have attached the public weekend invite as we would like it if Kirsten Henderson and Arwen Scott and their families could come along to see their work on display in The Barony of course everyone is welcome.

Address for The Barony is:

Rottenrow East
Glasgow
G4 0RA

All other entries although may not have been shortlisted do receive their certificate.

 Best regards,

 Susan Loxley

 Copy of an e mail from one of the engineers

Good questions from the kids today

One further piece for the kids on who inspired me when I was there age – I guess there were two people Kenny Dalglish (great footballer) whom I named, but the other key person who had a strong influence and really generated my enthusiasm for science, was Neil Armstrong. I remember to this day sitting in the school canteen and they brought in the black and white TV and let us watch Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon.  Having watched the rocket launch and followed this on TV, to see someone stand on the moon was truly awe inspiring.  I then bought all the material I could get my hands on (what my parents could afford) on space exploration!  Had I not become and engineering/scientist, being an astronaut would have been my dream job.

Please pass this along to the kids and thank them again for a thought provoking session.

Cheers

Trevor Grose

Well done to the pupils involved 🙂

Kemnay Academy, Kemnay Cluster

Great work from the Kemnay Cluster

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The Energy Apprentice

Four S5 pupils participated in this competition run by SPE & ICOTA which asked them to come up with an innovative idea of how more of the oil & gas in the current reservoirs could be extracted. The team spent time researching the oil & gas sector and before presenting their unique idea to a panel of industry experts (as well as the other school teams and teachers) who then judged the competition. The boys came a very close second.

Go4Set

The launch for Go4Set has taken place with Balfour Beatty sponsoring a team of S2 pupils with a possible second team participating depending on sponsorship. The focus is Energy Use and links with work being carried out for the Eco Schools award in addition to work in Science. There are two S6 Advanced Higher pupils mentoring the teams who have 10 weeks to research energy management and conservation, visit a partner company to find out what they do, do an energy audit and report with recommendations. The presentation of projects is on 4 Feb 2013.

Enterprise is the Business

This years P7 “Enterprise is the Business” event took place on Wed, 21 Nov, at Kintore Primary and involved ten S3 pupils helping to run the bank and the shop for the event along with five local business people who are the ‘buyers’ of the pupils products. This event gave pupils the chance to work as a team (mixed from the four schools) to start up and run their own business for a day. The sales person from the team had to then try to sell the groups products to the buyer for the most profit. Prizes were awarded for the most profit and for the highest quality products.

Dr Charlie Hunter: HT Kemnay Academy