Congratulations to eight girls in Year 8 who have just heard they have been awarded their gold certificate for being GDSTEM Ambassadors!

The girls’ GDSTEM journey began last year when 12 girls participated in the inaugural GDSTEM event at Imperial College last year, established by Samantha Bernstein of South Hampstead High School.  The idea of that day was to introduce the girls to STEM, and they sat through several different lectures on topics from biomechanical engineering to earth sciences.  For taking part in this first event, the girls received their bronze certificates. Their task was to then go back to their GDST schools and be STEM ambassadors. To achieve Silver or Gold, the ambassadors had to to set up an event, or write an article for a school newspaper, or  similar to champion STEM in some way.

Eight of the girls decided to continue and they planned and designed an event for our NHEHS Science Week in March for their peers. In each of the year 8 classes, we ran a carousel event, where we were fortunate enough to have two speakers who were able to come in and speak about why they felt that their jobs were creative and rewarding, and we also set each of the classes a problem solving challenge.

The girls all contributed to the design of the day as well as reaching out to the alumnae to try to find speakers, making contact with those speakers, and presenting the event. The girls’ enthusiasm for STEM shone throughout and the teachers of the Year 8 classes were very impressed with the event the girls ran, and how smoothly it took place.

Here’s GDSTEM Ambassador Daria’s write up of the Science Week event organised by the girls:

“The GDSTEM event during science week was a wonderful opportunity to deepen my own interest in the world of STEM and spark the interest in others. As a team, we were able to tackle different problems. We each had delegated tasks in order to bring the event together and make sure that everybody had an interesting and engaging role to play in planning and organising the event. Personally, I enjoyed researching the alumnnae of our school, as I found it very inspirational since many of them paved very successful career paths in one of the STEM areas. As a team we faced a variety of problems from fitting all the fun we had prepared into the time slot we had to sorting out logistics of rooms and numbers of people.

Our event consisted of two main parts: one was the talks from the alumni speakers who have careers in STEM. The other part was the exciting, practical experiment which we organised for the girls in our class. This experiment addressed the problem of natural disasters, such as flooding, which gravely affects the crops on an annual basis. The idea was to create a construction which would still be able to float, even with added weight, as in a real situation the plant would grow, making the weight on the construction increase. In order for our peers to complete the challenge, we had brought in items for recycling which could be used as building materials – such as plastic bottles, milk cartons or yogurt pots. The girls were engaged in the talks, as they were given an opportunity to find out how STEM is applied in real life. Judging by the feedback we received, the girls thoroughly enjoyed the experiment, as they let their creative sides shine through their innovative designs and ideas. At the end we had the testing of their structures and one of the highest scores was withstanding a weight of 600g. In our group we gave prizes for the best teamwork, most creative and practical winner, as we felt it would make the process enjoyable and fun for the girls.

On the day of our event, we split into three rooms since we had three classes taking part. The alumnnae speakers, Dr Coates and Dr Summersgill, talked about their journeys from school to the vital projects they are currently working on in the area of their research: such as artificial intelligence and successful and safe constructions. I feel that through this event I have learnt a lot – from researching how natural disasters affect the growth of crops and how to reduce the damage, both literally and financially, to how to manage a group of excited, buzzing peers as they are engrossed in an experiment. I enjoyed working with my classmates, and although sometimes it was sometimes challenging, I had a chance to think outside the box and use my problem solving skills. I really appreciate all the support our teachers gave us – their kind words, their experience and their passion. Furthermore, I have managed to learn more about the practical application of STEM to solve real life problems – both big and small.”

What the Ambassadors had to say about being involved in the GDSTEM event:

Maia – “Being a GDSTEM ambassador has so far been an amazing experience, and I have really enjoyed working with such kind and passionate people on this project. I can’t wait for what happens next.”

Nicola – “I found this event inspiring as seeing some people who took STEM as their career and who talked about their achievements makes many people want to take STEM as their career. Overall I found this experience inspiring and motivating and I definitely learned something new.”

Zara – “I found learning about the problems encountered every day in a STEM career, and how to overcome using logic and problem solving, really intriguing.”

Rachel – “Organising the event was fun and challenging. It showed us the struggles that come with organizing events and we had to make a few changes along the way because of technical difficulties. But everything
worked out and we all enjoyed the experience we had and I would definitely want to do something like this again in the future because it is extremely fun and educational for the people involved.”

Anna – “My favourite part was listening to the speakers to understand more about what STEM is really all about and how they got into it in the first place. I had never really considered STEM so much before, but I would definitely like to continue it further to understand more.”

Amelia – “Being able to see what can be done using STEM in the future and all of the careers in different aspects of STEM is really inspiring for me. This experience was motivating, fun, and inspiring and it was
amazing to see the rest of our year engaging in STEM.”

Well done to Rachel, Maia, Amelia, Daria, Nicola, Nirupama, Anna and Zara, who are already thinking about the next thing that they would like to do. Watch this space!