• Question: do you do and charity work like teaching children what you do ?

    Asked by mollymay to Ainz, Hannah, Norbert, Simon, Siu on 14 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Hannah Pearlman

      Hannah Pearlman answered on 14 Jun 2015:

      Hi,
      Yes I am a registered STEM Ambassador, which means that I volunteer to go into schools and speak about what I do and about what engineering is. I also give up my holiday time to work with a charity called the Smallpeice Trust who run engineering taster courses for school students, as well as doing things like this! I really enjoy speaking to young people about engineering and answering their questions.

    • Photo: Simon Lay

      Simon Lay answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I have been involved in many open days, tours and demo’s for schools and had a number of work experience students. It is nice to either confirm their interests or perhaps open up other avenues of possibility that they have not considered. I got a really nice letter from my first W E student that has since accepted a place at Oxford Uni to study software engineering when originally he wanted to be a scientist.

    • Photo: Siu Ng

      Siu Ng answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Dear mollymay,
      Yes, I do. As a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNet) Ambassador, I often volunteer and give up my holidays by presenting talks to students and children.

      For example, last year, I gave a presentation on climate change and flooding as part of the students’ preparation to sit for their A-Level. During a school activity project, I worked with students from Year 8 to Year 13 in designing and modelling houses for areas that are likely to be flooded in the developing world. A couple of months ago, I also gave a talk about being an engineer in the University of Portsmouth.

      I did these because as an engineer, I have the responsibility to promote the great things that engineers do to the society.

    • Photo: Norbert Gogiel

      Norbert Gogiel answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Hi!

      I am a Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Ambassador. I was a mentor for one of the local school’s. They were finding a solution to one of our problems, which was a unfolding antenna on the spacecraft. We are limited to a very little mass and volume on the spacecraft. They performed very well and they were voted the best by other students from more than 10 schools including Eaton and Harrow. Moreover, they have qualified for the CREST award of which results are yet to be announced.

      I found this project very interesting especially on the side of communicating engineering to younger people. The questions they had with the passion they expressed encouraged me to provide the most exhaustive answers I could possibly make, but explaining it relatively simple at the same time. In addition, I wanted to explain and present problems and solutions in the most interesting manner possible. A lot of them said they are considering perusing engineering as a career more than before, which is a success in my opinion.

      I also plan to teach children some mathematics at school in my spare time from September this year.

Comments