A Welcome from the Mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council On behalf of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, I am delighted to welcome you to our inaugural Science Summer School NI event. Science Summer School NI’s ‘Activate Your Curiosity: Making Sense of Science’, aims to encourage curiosity, inspire the next generation of local talent and future workforce and raise the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) activities with young people and their parents. This initiative was established in 2012 at St. Paul’s Way Trust School in east London by Lord Andrew Mawson OBE and Professor Brian Cox CBE, and the project is now expanding nationally with the aim to ‘make the UK the best place to do science’.
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Science Summer School is a catalyst for a collaborative vision for the borough to nurture future talent. Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has been working with schools and businesses across the borough to bring together a series of engaging activities. This includes competitions that stimulate innovation and creativity and school visits to companies in the borough which showcase career opportunities to help create a pipeline of future talent for our employers. You can read more about these activities on pages 20 and 21. As part of this initiative we are hoping to ‘Activate Your Curiosity’ through the ‘Gallery of First Attempts’, a new exhibition which will be open to the public at Mid-Antrim Museum in The Braid Civic Centre from 15 November. This exhibition will showcase some of the borough’s local talent and highlight how very complex and successful products and ideas often start from something small.
The opportunities for exciting and innovative careers in STEAM subjects are almost limitless. Bringing the event to Northern Ireland for the first time, we present an inspirational programme, which mixes the best of STEAM subjects through a series of TED Style presentations, discussions and hands-on experiments. I hope that you will greet our guest speakers and workshop providers with enthusiasm and make a positive contribution to the various sessions. This is an exciting opportunity to expand your STEAM knowledge and gain an appreciation of the importance that STEAM subjects contribute to all aspects of our lives.
Alderman Noel Williams Mayor of Mid & East Antrim Borough Council
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