STEMNET Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network

I attended the Prenton High School For Girls on the Wirral this morning, working with representatives from the Wirral Metropolitan College, who were running the session.

We were working with around 55 girls in year 9, with the girls in groups of 4-7. The session was a STEM activity involving building a marble run from card and paper. The focus was teamwork, innovation, project skills and of course, having the longest marble run!

I've attended a good few events now, and I have to say that I was impressed by how enthusiastic the girls were for this one. There were some real project skills on show, with girls who immediately took charge of the whole group, girls who came up with some really interesting ideas and one particular group of 6 girls who fell upon the task like they'd had a week to plan it out and worked absolutely brilliantly together.

One of the things I noticed about the session that really got the teams involved at the beginning was the chance for the girls to name their teams. This acted as a great ice breaker for communication and cooperation, and really got the session off to a good start. Names such as "lost my marbles" seemed rather popular....

Thanks to the folks at Wirral Met for their excellent activity, and the girls and staff at Prenton. This one was really fun!