On Thursday 7th April 2022 Miss Lott and Mrs Gwynne took a group of budding STEM students to the MACH Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham. Students experienced an event specialising in STEM and engineering careers showcasing live and digital production systems in one space.
Students listened to lectures delivered by keynote speakers from University of Wolverhampton Racing Team, Airbus Defence and Space Mars Rover as well as taking part in hands on activities. Students were taken on a tour of the exhibition by ex-Nunnery Wood student, Matthew Jarvis who is now completing his engineering apprenticeship at Mazak.
Abigail Ginever 10.7 won an insulated travel mug for her skills in Scratch Programming. Students competed against each other in a virtual reality welding challenge, Zak Ali 10.6 won the challenge with the highest percentage of the day achieving a score of 85%. Schools competed against each other on the high pressurised Formula 1 race track, Olivia McFarlane 10.2 won the challenge with the quickest reaction time! Tobias Gormley 9.2 said “it was amazing to see the F1 cars up close, I really enjoyed learning about how the engines are made”.
Students invited to change a tyre on a formula 1 car by the University of Wolverhamtion Racing team, sadly none of them were able to reach the racing time of 5 seconds! During the day students spent time programming the VEX Robotics to use electromagnets to move different coloured discs. Hazel Holmer 10.11 said “I really enjoyed learning to program the robot and it was great to see how all the areas of STEM are connected”. They spoke to the engineering team leading the Mars Rover expedition, made 3D dinosaurs in the printing gallery and programmed mini-robots using coloured inks. Imogen Heppner 9.4 said “it really challenged stereotypes in STEM and showed us the wide range of careers available at all levels”.
One of the highlights of the day for many students was listening to a presentation from “Apprentice of the Year” Katy Foster. Issac Perks 10.4 said the talk “was very inspiring and the trip really opened my eyes to how versatile STEM is”.
If you have any questions about careers in STEM don’t hesitate to speak to Miss Lott (SC1) or Mrs Gwynne (opposite the library)
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