The dream of STEAM

“What have you done to my lovely STEAM room?” asked Mr Groves when he walked into a myriad of activity as children from all year groups haggled over the different materials on offer to them.

“STEAM doesn’t have to be clean Mr Groves!” replied Rosie and just like that, a new catch phrase is born!

There was much anticipation and excitement ahead of our first whole school STEAM day of the academic year, and as ever the day did not disappoint! The children were transported to Bangladesh and the fictitious ‘Watu Island’. Here the children were given the challenge of creating a flood proof home for local farmers. The morning consisted of three workshops incorporating all of the STEAM acronyms. Children were taught area and volume (depending on their year group) and had to apply this knowledge practically to create a flood proof model of the required dimensions taught during these lessons. They learnt about ways houses had been ‘flood proofed’ around the world and learnt about the properties of the materials they were going to be working with in the afternoon.

The pièce de résistance of the morning activities was the opportunity for each child to colour in a recycled plastic bottle using a sharpie pen. Each child’s work has been used in a collaborative art project to turn recycled plastic bottles into a contemporary chandelier for the STEAM room. The children have full ownership of the room as their work is literally hanging from the ceiling!

After lunch the children were given the chance to put their new knowledge to use and in their respective Houses they began to construct their flood-proof homes. Once a design was in place the children could come to the STEAM room and collect the resources they required. The children did not stop smiling and showed impressive resilience as they encountered problems with their designs. At the end of the day each group brought their model for ‘testing’ which involved Mr Groves being ‘The Flood’ (with the help of a hose pipe). The enjoyment on the children’s and Headteacher’s face was clear for all to see and it brought a fitting end to another great activity improving our children’s ability to collaborate, engineer and apply their Math skills.

‘I just loved STEAM days so much,’ chirped Krish ‘I learn so much without even realising it’s just so much fun!’