Year 8 STEM Expo at Alperton Community School

December 9, 2016

On 17 November AccessHE held their Year 8 STEM Expo at Alperton Community School in Brent. The event reflected an amalgamation of the hard work and collaborative efforts of the four associated HEIs: London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University London, Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and the University of Hull.

Over 100 x Year 8 students from four schools spanning three different local authorities (Brent, Ealing and Harrow) were able to attend the event. Highlights of the ten different STEM-based workshops on offer included the University of Hull’s planetarium – an immersive astronomical experience in which students entered a giant inflatable dome, complete with an interior adorned with projections of the night sky.

RVC’s equally popular animal anatomy workshop offered students a practical insight into the complexities of animal skeletal structures (pictured below) through the examination of genuine horse skulls and elephant femurs. Middlesex’s futuristic Novint Falcons Haptic Devices workshop invited students to test cutting edge 3D touch devices used in surgical procedures.

London Metropolitan’s workshop offering an insight into to the world of polymerisation through the medium of ‘slime’ creation, although predictably messy, also proved one of the most popular workstations on offer. The huge success of the event was undoubtedly underpinned by the support and efforts of the host venue, Alperton Community School.

Alperton’s offer to host the event was itself a product of participation in the initial Capital Access Project STEM Expo held six months earlier, thus underlining the popularity of the project among the schools in attendance.