The Castle School
STEM Newsletter
Spring 2016
Welcome everyone to our fifth edition. So much has happened since our last edition. We have had NEW
students taking part in NEW opportunities and as ‘Spring’ is associated with new life – all things NEW will be the
theme of this ‘NEWsletter’!
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING and MATHEMATICS.
Just a reminder: At Castle School we are keen to involve as many students, of all ages and abilities, in STEM
opportunities. The purpose of this is so that the students can find Inspiration for the Future through STEM. Not
only do we enjoy looking at how STEM is all around us and shapes the world we live in but we encourage students
to consider the exciting and rewarding career paths that studying STEM subjects could lead to…… and there are
so many!
NEW Trip! For the first time this year we were able to take a coach full of students to The Big Bang!
The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair is the largest celebration of STEM for young people in the UK. It is an
award-winning combination of exciting theatre shows, interactive workshops and exhibits, as well excellent careers
information. The aim is to show the exciting and rewarding opportunities out there and bring classroom learning to
life!!
Building and racing ‘Cars of the
future’ powered with salt water!
Students with the Big
Bang ‘Mathscot’!
Making a wind turbine…….
The actual Bloodhound car!!
The visit to the Big Bang fair came at the end of British Science Week – which we of course celebrated in school like we
do every year - but this time with some NEW activities. These were open to all students at lunchtimes and were well
supported. Thanks to all the staff that ran them! One of the NEW activities took place in virtual reality wearing an
Oculus Rift style headset and was very kindly run for our students by 2 software engineers from BAE Systems. In
groups of 4, students had to work together to diffuse a bomb! One student was wearing the headset, so only they
could see, and the others had the instructions….. only good communication skills and teamwork lead to survival!
Other NEW messy activities were:
Pendulum Art and Making Honeycomb – which
included a chip pan fire with a competition for who
could take the best photo of it!
New Technology.
As I am sure you will have seen in the media recently, as part of the
BBC’s Make it Digital initiative schools are receiving the micro:bit! As parents
of a certain age will remember, when they were at school in the 1980s, the
BBC Micro introduced children to computing for the first time. The BBC
micro:bit -70 times smaller and 18 times faster than the original BBC Micro
computers used in schools in the early 1980s - will build on the legacy of that project for the
digital age.
The micro:bit aims to inspire young people to get creative with digital and develop core skills in science, technology and
engineering. Two members of staff have recently received training on how to get started with the micro:bit in lessons
but you will also be able to use these at home! One local event that is open to all is Coding the Future on Saturday 16th
April. It is being held at Intel Swindon and is run by the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology). It is a drop-in
style event where you can get hands on experience of what the micro:bit can do and what you can do with it! More
info can be found here: http://faraday.theiet.org/stem-activity-days/bbc-microbit/events/index.cfm (or simply type in
‘IET micro:bit events’ into your search engine!)
NEW Teams. Last year we ran several successful ‘hands on’ STEM projects with students and mentors from local (but
also global) businesses. You could say these projects are bigger and better this time round as we have more students
taking part as well as more staff involved!!
Essilor: Last year 4 students = 1 Telescope.
This year 14 students = 1 Focimeter
1 Spyglass
1 Microscope
and 1 Pair of handmade Spectacles!
dddffddddd
Hyundai: Go-Kart Project now Airbus: Industrial
with 7 students and a real
design focus for the Gravity
Racer taking part in Tetbury
Wacky Race on May Day!
Cadets This year
will see 16 Year 8
and Year 9 girls
graduate after
designing a new
school building!
All of these projects involve
the following skills:
Research, Designing,
Problem Solving,
Teamwork, Written
Communication and
Presenting to an audience!!
Flying Start Challenge: A NEW batch of Year 8 students spent 12 weeks, along with Ms Nobes and their mentors
from BAE Systems, designing building and flying their own Gliders. This year Castle School didn’t just qualify for the
Finals at RAF Yeovilton they won the regional round! Very well done to all who took part!!
NEW Achievements: As well as Flying Start success, we had more students than ever
gain Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the UKMT Maths Challenges and had 11 students
progress, in their age groups, onto the international rounds!!
In the Maths Feast team competition – run by the Further Maths Support Programme – the
team from Castle won a record 3 rounds!
Other STEM ‘NEW’s! As well as a new trip to The Big Bang Fair there are several NEW trips that link directly to the
science curriculum. Y12 Physicists have visited Essilor as part of their studies in Optics. A level Chemistry students
have visited Bristol University as part of their ChemLabs outreach
programme. Some Chemistry students will also get to visit AGAS this
year and have been invited to Astra Zeneca! One upcoming
opportunity is for Year 10 female students to hear how important it
is for women to take up STEM careers….. look out for that one girls! Perhaps the
most exciting trip of all is our first ever trip to CERN!! Thanks to a very enthusiastic
group of science staff some sixth formers will get the opportunity to see the
Hadron Collider and visit the birthplace of the World Wide Web….inspirational
stuff! There is also a NEW STEM Committee in the 6th form, so thanks to them,
and a massive thank you also to the outgoing committee who have organised some fantastic speakers for our STEM
café!
NEW ideas please?????
Want to run a workshop or speak to our students? Got an idea/ event/ trip you want to run?
For questions about the above or anything to do with STEM at all please contact:
rachel.beddoes@thecastleschool.org.uk