F1 in Schools Regional Final Results

Considering the timescale that the students had to work to it was amazing that all three teams managed to get their cars finished as well as all of the presentation work that went with it. Even more amazing was that one of the teams has made it through to the national finals!

Team Pluto who were showing their pace during the in house testing at HEC have made it through to the national finals in January.

The team will now have the next couple of months to make any adjustments to their cars. I will of course be reporting back with how they get on but in the mean time here is a video slideshow of the last week of the build, testing and the regional heats. Click here!

F1 in Schools MPD Diploma group

Whilst I was wearing out the A14 on the way to the D+T Show the MPD Diploma group working on the F1 in schools project were in the corridors of HEC testing out their cars. A nice press article on this can be seen here http://ow.ly/Fcwy

Good luck to the teams who are competing today!

D&T Show

On Friday I made the trip to Birmingham for the D&T Show and was pleased to see that in between the companies exhibiting that there was some showcased work from schools. The work from the various universities was very impressive and I wonder if it would be possible to create a collection of projects to showcase what we are doing at secondary level in the East of England? Does this sound like it is something that would be of interest? If so get in touch. I think that whilst the show obviously has to have a commercial nature the showcasing of work plays a very important part of it. At the end of the day schools can have all the latest kit available but if there are no exciting projects being created then the goal has been missed.

That said the equipment on display was very impressive and I now have a rather large wish list. Well... christmas is coming...

Solidworks Twilight

Thanks to all of those that attended the Solidworks twilight session last night. Everyone seemed to make great progress in the small amount of time that we had. Hopefully even those that had a few frustrations have picked up a few tips to help get you started with the software.

We want to make these a regular occurance and we are happy to tailor future sessions to your needs (they are for your use at the end of the day!) so if there are any topics that you would like covered please feel free to fire off a request either via email to the usual address or via the blog (just comment on this post if you like). If we get a few different ideas I will try and work out how to put a poll up!

The next one is scheduled in for February but we can look at slipping in another date if the demand exists, again request via either email or comment.

Primary students pushing expectations

Today saw the third session of the Primary CAD CAM project, for those of you that don't know about it here is the summary- Students are working in teams of 4 or 5 to create a range of keyrings for a specific target market. This starts with an introductory session with each school (which I am doing now), the students will then proceed through the various stages of Brainstorming (I think its ok to use that term this week...), market research, development sketches, final design and then finally a 4:1 scale drawing of the finished keyring. Then at HEC we will go through getting the designs onto CAD and production using our laser cutter.

I must admit to having underestimated the ability of the year 5 and 6 students that I have been working with. From the first session I've had to deviate away from my planned delivery (planned is a very loose term for me!) and thrown in a few curve balls and what I would have previously considered year 7, 8 and 9 concepts in order to keep the students stretched.

This is a real credit to these students as well as the schools involved in the project and the ability to have a flexible approach to learning for the youngsters will I'm sure pay dividends when it comes to the critical development time between now and their return to HEC with the schools already saying that they can free up some more time for the students to carry this on.

It is now our job to ensure that we repay this enthusiasm with an exciting visit to HEC and I'm sure the students won't leave disappointed!

Here it is!

Welcome to the H-STEM blog, an informal place to keep up to date with our latest activities, have your say on H-STEM and STEM in general and... well... as this is the first post lets wait and see shall we!