STEM

For the most part, access to the STEM rooms this year has been quite limited. This has led to more outdoor education and activities with less resources needed during the Autumn and Spring Terms.

As a result, the Summer Term has been a frenzy of activity as the children have been free to use the resources on hand. I had missed the low hum of the computers in the suite and the tapping of the keys as the Reception and Pre-Prep children typed their first words on a PC, created space montages and coded fish to swim around a fish tank!

Year 3 children, having coded ‘micro:Bits’ during lockdown to act as a light house, set to building a model lighthouse with an electrical circuit to allow the Lighthouse Keepers lunch deliveries to go back and forth.

Year 4’s exploration of TinkerCAD and 3D design saw some incredible creations and they demonstrated excellent coding in Scratch.

Year 5 and 6 both took to new design software, taking the next step in their CAD journey. The Year 5 children designed bird boxes on SketchUp for Schools and were then presented with the tools to make them. There is always something special about giving a class of 9 and 10 years olds a ‘big saw’!

Year 6 were introduced to Easel’s Inventables with a task to design a clock face and to select the correct tools and toolpaths for it to be sent to the CNC machine. I have learnt just as much as the Year 6 children this year and have clocked up just over 150 hours of machining clock faces this summer! Although in its infancy, more pictures and content is available on the STEAM Twitter handle @KWS_PrepSTEAM from the last year and more will be to come!