Written by: Dr Mark McBride-Wright CEng MIChemE, Founder & Managing Director, EqualEngineers
Inspiration to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) can start from a young age. Capturing the imagination of young children can set them on a path to be curious to discover more.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing lockdown and closing of schools has meant that parents and carers have had to become teachers for their children as well. Teaching is a profession in and of itself and so to take on this new role in your young person’s life can be daunting.
We have seen a some brilliant resources be made available to help ease the burden of home learning. From ideas for your next supermarket shop, things you can print off at home, to instructions for designing and creating objects which bring concepts to life, and even competitions which you can enter to win prizes, there has never been a better time to get stuck in to learning about STEM.
We have collated a list of excellent resources below which we have discovered. We will aim to keep this list as dynamic as possible. If you know of something we ought to consider for inclusion, please email us at outreach@equalengineers.com.
1. Neon Futures, by EngineeringUK
Bringing STEM to life through real-world engineering. Brilliant experiences, inspiring careers resources and stories that showcase modern engineering: https://neonfutures.org.uk/
2. STEM Learning
World-leading STEM education for all young people across the UK: https://www.stem.org.uk/
- Starters for STEM – Starters for STEM consists of lots of easy to run activities suitable for children from 4-11. Designed for parents to use at home they help children develop their science, technology, engineering and maths skills.
- STEM Ambassadors on screen
- National STEM Club: Club sessions will be delivered by a variety of STEM Ambassadors, partner organisations, schools, teachers, technicians and students. Aimed at different age groups and abilities. The sessions will be pre-recorded, with subject experts and club leaders on hand during the sessions to answer questions in the YouTube chat. Join our YouTube community and watch previous sessions.
3. Skills Miner, Enginuity
Colliding gaming and engineering together, Skills Miner is a newly created world, which uncovers, captures and endorses your gaming expertise against engineering skills. Leverages the familiarity of Minecraft. https://enginuity.org/innovation-lab/skills-miner/
4. Primary Engineer
Inspiring children, pupils and teachers through continued professional development, whole class project work, competitions and exhibitions
- “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” competition: https://leadersaward.com/
- Statwars competition – the driving force behind the next generation of data scientists: https://www.statwarscompetition.com/
5. Nuclear Institute Young Generation Network “STEM in a box”
6. FemEng, University of Glasgow
6 x videos with 4workshops covering different engineering disciplines aimed at ages 8 to 12. Access here.
7. Primary Business Partnership
Find out what current activities and programmes are available to primary schools in Copeland and Allerdale according to subject. Businesses can also find useful how to guides for creating or delivering sessions. Access here.
8. Butterfly Books
Inspirational books for young people to access professions they may not readily consider. New website with resources due in first few months of 2021. Access here.
9. Educational Page from Scottish Water: https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/help-and-resources/education
Excellent selection of Modules, Resources and Games to help educate from aged 4 to 16 on areas related to water and waste water.
10. Educational Page from Siemens: https://new.siemens.com/uk/en/company/education.html
A range of resources aimed at students, teachers, parents and school pupils. STEM Activity Magazine contains topics relevant to the future of engineering, and resource packs are available for teachers with supporting lesson plans.
11. STEM Together online community from GE Aviation
Using the innovators of today to inspire the innovators of tomorrow through remote STEM activities. We aim to keep the STEM inspiration flowing whilst keeping our workshops online and projects resources light for everyone. Projects include Mission to Mars, Disaster Drone, Unsustainable and the Future of Flight. Access here.
12. The Institution of Civil Engineers Library – Pinterest page with lots of ideas for children.
13. Educational resources for children from Network Rail: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/educational-resources-for-children/
- Emily the Engineer activity sheets
- Connecting the Railway online game
- Colouring-in sheets
- Awesome Railways fact sheets
- Stay Safe with Thomas
14. Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) STEM at Home Resources: https://www.imeche.org/careers-education/stem-at-home
Lots of exciting activities to make and do at home including: Ball Run, Bridge Bonanza, CD Racer, Catapult, Cork Launcher, Flying Dragon, Hydraulic Propagator, Lighthouse, Lunar Rover, Mechanical Hand, Paper Manufacturing, Tower and Water Turbine.
Article first written and published on Tuesday 26th January 2021. If you would like to see resources added to this page then email us the content to outreach@equalengineers.com. We will fact-check and then include at our next revision.