On Thursday 19th April, the whole school took part in an exciting STEM day. The children came to school dressed up as scientists and inventors. They spent part of their day tackling the ‘Squashed Tomato Challenge’ which was based on a real life scenario in Nepal. The children had to think about how to transport tomatoes down a hill and over a river without spoiling any of them. The children had to work in teams to design and build their ideas, they were then given tomatoes to test these out!
“I enjoyed designing and making our pulley systems- ours worked and the tomatoes didn’t fall out. We also found out about engineers who are famous for designing and making different things.“ Darcy Year 3
“I enjoyed learning about Stephen Hawkin and his discoveries. I liked designing myself as a Mr Man character!” Matthew Year 4
Some children even designed and made pulley systems for their tomatoes.
At the end of the session, the children were shown how Practical Action (scientists and engineers who use technology to challenge poverty in developing countries) solved this problem in real life. They saw how a pulley system based on weights enabled the villagers to become more efficient in their farming!
Throughout the day, the children found out the skills needed to become engineers and about different engineers who designed and created objects and devices which help them in their every day lives.
A new ‘Little Miss’ book had been written to celebrate International Women’s Day and British Science week called ‘Little Miss Inventor’. The children used this to create their own ‘Little Inventor’, their designs were fantastic!
