STEM at Holy Trinity Academy. To increase young people’s choice and chances through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
HTA has been awarded STEM embedded school status.
Students at HTA experience STEM across the curriculum as well as through a variety of extra-curricular activities.
STEM enrichment.
A STEM club runs during enrichment. Activities covered so far are;
Making a colorimeter out of lego
Building a robot wars robot
Using the number of nematode worms in a soil sample as an indicator of soil health.
Studying the development of frogspawn to tadpole to hopefully, little fully formed frogs!
Participating in the Society of Cosmetic Scientist’s “Scrub up on Science!” Challenge, which involves trying to create a great bath bomb and producing either a video or power point presentation showing how it was done.
Investigating electrophoresis and how it can identify different DNA from the banding produced across a gel plate.
STEM ambassadors.
STEM ambassadors have worked with year 10 students on interview techniques, CV writing and careers.
Code Club.
One of our sixth form students has completed Code Club training and currently delivers a Code Club to year 7 students.
STEM trips.
Year 8 students have visited the Priorslee Campus to see the racing car and talk to the students who helped to build it.
Some year 7 students have visited BAE systems.
Teen Tech – some current year 7 & 8 students will attend this event in October.
Future STEM activities are planned with our neighbours, Ricoh.
We have applied to take part in the Faraday Challenge activity next year.
On 24th February, year 8 students spent the morning at the Priorslee Campus of Wolverhampton University. They met the students who were involved in building the very impressive racing car.
Students were also taken on a tour of the campus so that they could get an idea of University life.
Testimonials:
Ranshika Pathiranage: “The things I liked the most about the trip to Wolverhampton University campus were going to the lecture theatre and also going to see the cars and changing the wheels and learning about the cars.
The thing I liked about going to the lecture theatre is that we learnt about some of the subjects that you can do at university and that it’s more than just going to lectures. Also I liked learning about what subjects you can study at university because I am interested in going to university so you can get a good idea about the subjects and finding the right job for you, also my brother goes to university and he’s told me it’s good!
I liked visiting the car garage as it was interesting to learn about all the different parts of a race car and also I want to study Business as one of my options for GCSE, but now I am also thinking about engineering.”
Katie King: “On our trip we got to see race cars that have won races and we were able to sit in them too! Sitting in the cars was uncomfortable but it was a good experience. Whilst people were taking their turn in the car we had to design a nose cone for the car, Hannah’s was one of the best!
On the second station there was another race car, but on this one we had to change the tyre. We worked in pairs, one of us changing the tyre and the other was using the jack. Lydia changed her tyre in 52 seconds and everyone tried to beat her time.
I also really enjoyed learning about what happens at university and enjoyed visiting the Students Union and Halls of Residence.”
