Gloucestershire based engineering technologies company, Renishaw, recently hosted free virtual science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workshops for key stage two and three children to give students more opportunities to gain hands-on engineering experience. The children had the opportunity to take online courses on 3D printing and coding with Scratch to help them gain new skills and bring real-world context to their STEM curricula.
The 3D printing courses, hosted on Microsoft Teams Live, included a session on printing a fridge magnet or phone stand. In each session, the children were given an explanation of 3D printing and examples of how it is used in industry and by Renishaw. The children then used software to experiment with designing an object in 3D and slicing the design ready for printing. Renishaw will print and post every student’s design so that they can see the result of their hard work. Renishaw also hosted a virtual coding course using Scratch software to learn the basics of block code, create a game and learn a fundamental engineering skill.
Both workshops ended with a question and answer session with the Renishaw education team. Students had the opportunity to hear about real-world engineering projects at Renishaw, giving students real insight into the variety of opportunities in engineering and encouraging them to consider it as a future career option.
“We’re investing in education because our future engineers are students in school today,” explained Simon Biggs, Education Outreach Officer at Renishaw. “We may not be able to physically visit classrooms and host practical workshops at the moment, however, we can still provide a hands-on environment in these virtual workshops that gives students an insight into the vibrant world of engineering.”
Renishaw is committed to sharing positive messages about engineering. Its education outreach programme supports parents and teachers across Gloucestershire, Bristol and South Wales, offering a range of activities aimed at students between Years 5 to 13. The range of hands-on activities are designed to get students excited about engineering and inspire them to consider STEM careers in the future.
For more information on Renishaw’s commitment to education outreach, visit https://www.renishaw.com/en/education-outreach–34713
