WMG’s Outreach team has completed another successful series of Royal Institution Masterclasses for school children across Coventry.

The classes aim to open the eyes of young people to the excitement of engineering, and in turn, inspire the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Local schools were invited to nominate two year nine students to take part, with a total of 24 students participating in the sessions overall.

The Masterclasses were held on Saturday mornings in the form of interactive workshop sessions focusing on a different aspect of engineering. The Series was delivered by staff and students from WMG, with several of this year’s classes led by researchers working on key WMG HVM Catapult projects.

Professor Margaret Low, Director of Outreach and Widening Participation at WMG explained: “Sadly, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the final masterclass focusing on software and control could not be held as an interactive session on campus.

“Instead myself and Helen Luckhurst, Project Officer at WMG HVM Catapult, held the final session virtually across two evenings.”

Professor Low added: “The virtual classes were a complete first for the Outreach team, a strange but still successful end to the Masterclasses. We presented a series of video tutorials and the students then used their programming and pattern skills to create an embroidered pattern design for a coaster. There were some really great designs.”

Find out more about the 2020 RI Masterclasses here.

Now that schools across the UK are closed due to Covid-19, the challenge is on for parents to keep their children educated. Or failing that – just keep them occupied.

The outreach team from WMG, University of Warwick, want to encourage children and their parents and carers to use this time to explore some of the fun, creative STEM learning opportunities which are available online. With support from WMG centre HVM Catapult, the outreach team at WMG has produced a number of online activities for children of all ages to get involved and learn something new.

Professor Margaret Low, Director of Outreach and Widening Participation for WMG, explains:
"With schools closing it’s a real opportunity to engage parents and carers with online teaching resources, to ensure children are getting an education at home during these uncertain times.”

“We hope these resources, which are suitable for young people of all ages, will inspire children to take up careers in STEM. Many children may think of engineering as physically making things, but don't realise the maths or computer design skills required, which could open up a great career for them in the future.”

The first resource suggested by WMG outreach team is Turtlestitch, which is great for children in school years 5 to 9. Turtlestitch is a free website on which users can write a program to control a digital embroidery machine. It is used by WMG for outreach activities, as a means of raising awareness of the breadth of engineering. Young people really enjoy using Turtlestitch for pattern design, with or without access to a digital embroidery machine, which makes it ideal for learning at home while schools are closed.

Helen Luckhurst, a Project Officer at WMG, University of Warwick comments: “Turtlestitch is great for children learning at home because it gives them a fun context for applying maths skills. It is interactive and engaging as children discover the patterns they can make using maths.”

“We have created a number of resource cards and video tutorials to support its use, so I hope that parents and carers will encourage their children to use this as a different way of learning.”

Find WMG video tutorials, how-to cards and maths tasks to guide users through Turtlestitch here. Explore the learning materials on basic programming skills, year 5 and 6 maths, craft projects and further mathematical investigations.

Another fun activity for both primary and secondary school children is Tinkercad, a colourful, easy to use computer-aided design software, which is free to use in the web browser and suitable for children from around 8 years of age. Teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers use it to imagine, design, and make anything. It is used by WMG outreach as part of the Warwick Bright Stars programme in primary schools. Parents can find video tutorials and ideas for several projects here, including keyrings, money pots and lolly drip trays.

Diane Burton, a Project Officer at WMG, University of Warwick explains: "These Tinkercad projects engage children in the design process, and get them using measurements and maths as an essential part of their design work.”

Autodesk Fusion 360 is a powerful, professional CAD package. It is used in secondary schools and is suitable for ages 14+, and a free download is available to students, educators and enthusiasts. WMG video and written tutorials are available here, where you will find projects including design of assistive technology.

Parents may also want to do some experiments at home with their children, which are fun and educational for any age.

WMG staff have made videos available of demonstrating experiments to do at home, using household items and toys you might already have. It is advisable that children are supervised during these experiments.

Watch Graduate Trainee Engineers Lauren, Jacob, Josh and Lucas demonstrating STEM experiments, and follow a guide to building a pulley from a toy construction set. There are many more experiments to come, telling the engineering story behind household objects.

Dr Phil Jemmett, a Project Officer at WMG, University of Warwick comments: “Every product in your house has been made by engineers and shaped by scientists. We want to tell the story behind those items and show you experiments that you can do with everyday stuff. Now that we are all staying in our homes, we just have to find a way to do STEM with what we’ve got!”

Parental supervision is advised when accessing external websites.

The WMG Outreach team, funded by the lmagineering Foundation, has delivered a special CAD and 3D printing programme to more than 200, ten and 11 year olds across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Four University of Warwick undergraduate engineering students delivered the programme, throughout 2019, in a series of workshops designed to raise awareness and knowledge of CAD and 3D printing.

Workshop 1: Introduction to the programme and learning about 3D printing

In the first session the team explained the role of engineers in the design process. The children were also shown how 3D printers are used to create prototypes.

Ice lollies!

In small groups the children were tasked with designing, (using CAD), and creating, (using 3D printing), an ice-lolly drip tray. During the design process the Outreach Team explained the importance of taking accurate measurements to ensure that the designs would actually work.

The challenge

Using a hairdryer (to create the feel of a warm summer’s day!) the children were presented with the problem of dripping lollies! The challenge to design a suitable drip tray was then set.

The children used life-sized 3D printed ice lollies on sticks to take key measurements needed for their drip tray designs. The pupils discussed and sketched design ideas including adding key measurements. These measurement and design sheets were then used in the next two workshops to help develop their CAD designs.

Workshop 2: Using Tinkercad to draw lolly drip tray designs in CAD

A video tutorial was used to show the children how to use Tinkercad. Building on their design work from Workshop One, the children began producing CAD drawings for the drip trays.

Workshop 3: Using scaled digital lolly model to assess and improve designs

Pupils put the finishing touches to their designs and used the scaled digital lolly models to visualise and assess their designs, considering any design modifications that were needed to ensure the drip tray was effective. The children were encouraged to continue this process until they were confident the design would work.

Towards the end of the workshop, the class shared their finished designs. The class then voted for their favourite two, these were then 3D printed and returned to the school as a momentum.

Diane Burton, Project Officer STEM Outreach explained: “The school pupils had fun learning key design principles, and they have successfully produced products that are both functional and creative.”

You can find out more about all of WMG’s Outreach activities here.

WMG’s Outreach team was pleased to play a part in the University of Warwick’s Winter Wonderland Family Day early this month.

The Team put together a series of STEM activities each with a special festive twist including:

Merry Stitchmas: software and control

Professor Margaret Low and Helen Luckhurst hosted a festive craft drop-in session introducing the public to coding in a creative context, with children and their families used Turtlestitch to write a computer program. This was then inputted into WMG’s digital embroidery machine. They watched the machine stitch their designs onto felt, then cut them out and added a loop of string to make tree decorations.

X-Peri-Mas

There’s never a better time to tinker with some science and engineering than over the Christmas holidays. Everyone is inside and there’s plenty of things in the kitchen cupboards to raid for experiments.

 Phil Jemmett put on a show of science and engineering tricks that young people could recreate at home over the Christmas holidays. Volunteers learned how to do tricks like making a rainbow pattern on a water surface, creating a tornado in a bottle, turning a jar full of water upside down without a lid and (usually) without making a mess, and how to do rocket science with fuel from the kitchen.

 Miniature Race Track

Staff from the WMG Graduate Development Scheme gave children and their families an introduction to autonomous technology with children guiding their driverless vehicles around a festive miniature racetrack. The vehicle was a self-driving reindeer robot pulling a 3D-printed sleigh that the children had decorated. They were given an insight into the technology inside autonomous vehicles and how they worked, exploring how objects were identified and tackling winter driving scenarios.

 Find out more about WMG’s Outreach activities here.

The WMG Outreach Team had a busy summer term concluding with the Experience Warwick Year 10 Summer School, which ran from 3-6 July and was supported by the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

The programme was created and led by Phil Jemmett and saw a total of 42 students, aged 14 and 15 years, work on mini-engineering projects in small teams. They were supported by University of Warwick student ambassadors, research staff and Graduate Trainee Engineers from WMG.

Professor Margaret Low, Widening Participation Officer for WMG explained: “The projects were designed to introduce the youngsters to key engineering skills and to help them to recognise the importance of resilience and team work.

“The students had some fantastic ideas, including a smart city model, radio based game and remote controlled cars, which were presented to their families and teachers at a special showcase event.”

The Summer School, organised by Warwick Outreach and Widening Participation Team, gave the students a true insight into life at university: they got to stay in University of Warwick halls of residence, attend academic sessions and experience the social and sport facilities on campus.

Based on the success of the project, next summer it will be expanded into a full work experience programme in July 2020. To find out more contact wmgoutreach@warwick.ac.uk

In the Autumn term, local schools were invited to nominate two year 9 pupils (1 boy, 1 girl) to attend the Saturday morning Royal Institution Engineering Masterclasses in WMG, at the University of Warwick in the spring term. These classes commenced on Saturday 26th January.

This Series aims to open the eyes of young people to the excitement, beauty and value of engineering, and in turn, inspire the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

The Series is delivered by staff and students from WMG. Each masterclass focuses on an aspect of modern engineering and is presented by an engineer actively involved in research or working in industry. The classes take the form of interactive workshop sessions.

The dates for the RI Masterclasses 2019 Series are:

Saturday mornings January 26th, February 2nd and 9th, March 2nd, 9th, 16th.

The sessions delivered in 2019 are listed below.

• Software and Control: Margaret Low
• Computer Aided Design and 3D printing: Diane Burton
• The Power of Process: Mairi Macintyre
• Crash Structures from Recycled Materials: Peter Wilson
• Autonomous Vehicles - a taste of things to come: Valentina Donzella
• Welcome to Batteries: Mel Loveridge + Eve Wheeler-Jones

In January, as part of the Sutton Scholars project we invited a group of Year 8 students and their parents to the University. These are school students who show great academic potential, with the aim being to give them an early insight into university life by visiting campus and trying out new subjects.

As part of the visit, the Warwick Racing student project team also delivered a presentation to the group to help raise awareness of engineering and give an insight into the team’s fascinating work.

On Friday 10 November, Diane Burton and Margaret Low ran a CAD and 3D printing workshop for teenagers attending the Action Duchenne International Conference at the NEC Metropole Hotel in Birmingham.

The workshop gave teenagers attending the conference the opportunity to learn more about the potential of 3D printing to design simple gadgets to help them with every day tasks.

They learnt about 3D printing and had a chance to try Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD software. With the help of Warwick Engineering undergraduates, Harry and Jack Adams, Alice Davis and Hannah May, the youngsters used the Fusion 360 tutorials (on our outreach webpages) to learn how to design straw bungs for various drinks containers. A number of them also completed their designs during the workshop.

This workshop built on work done during the WMG project “Engaging Young People with Assistive Technology.

All the youngsters who attended received a selection of 3D printed straw bungs to take home along with details of the WMG Fusion 360 tutorials  

In June, we hosted a series of Insight into Engineering workshops for children from schools across Coventry and Warwickshire.

The children all took part in practical workshop activities including using Lego to create vehicles. Afterwards our staff, along with engineers from Jaguar Land Rover explained more about the career choices they had made and the variety of opportunities that a career in STEM can lead to. Dr Emma Rushforth also presented ‘Robots for Real’ exploring the use of robots in society.

The older children then enjoyed a tour of our engineering hall and Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) showcase area, whilst the primary school pupils took the campus sculpture trail investigating the materials and techniques used to create them.

Over the summer, our Outreach team took part in the Warwick Family Day organised by our colleagues at Warwick Arts Centre. The University hosted activities across campus and this year our team but put on a series of fun activities too.

This year’s theme was the Great Outdoors, and the children had a great time making pond slime, creating paper rockets, building Lego robots and using our virtual reality apparatus.

More than 3,500 families visited campus, and our team did a fantastic job helping to keep them all entertained. Our activities received some fantastic feedback including:

“WMG was the best bit” and “we loved the cricketers and all the stuff at WMG”.

It was a great day and we’re looking forward to playing our part again next year.