Educational case studies
STEM Star Awards
Working together with our school’s partner Queen Mary’s College, Basingstoke. Dr Alison Baxter, lead AWE STEM ambassador, created the STEM Star Award scheme for sixth-form students. The prize-winning STEM stars were selected from those who have completed a research and development project that could be on anything STEM related, from biofuels to robotics and beyond. The aim is to inspire students to engage with their personal STEM interests in a way that goes well beyond the curriculum and promotes the development of transferable skills.
Pupils tackle bio-diversity challenge
In 2021 Primary school pupils in Years 5 and 6 across West Berkshire and Hampshire rose to the AWE Primary Science Challenge with great enthusiasm. To tie in with World Environment Day, we created worksheets and checklists were created to help local pupils identify and create micro-habitats such as bird boxes, bug hotels, compost bins and rock gardens, which are a great way of attracting different types of wildlife. This challenge was then rolled out in local primary schools through our partnership with Education Business Partnership South and Education Business Partnership West Berkshire.
“The children really enjoyed the session. An excellent opportunity to embed the learning taught in the classroom and develop an interest in science.” Teacher, Whitelands Park Primary School
Colourful outreach work
One of our STEM Ambassadors, Damaris, adopted a colourful and creative approach to engaging with pupils at South View Federation schools in Basingstoke. Ably assisted by her son Caleb, Damaris created a video that explained how rainbows naturally occur by using props – including a fish tank and marbles – to explain refraction. Damaris and Caleb expertly discussed not only refraction, but wavelengths, prisms and colour spectrums – so South View pupils understood where rainbows came from.
Pupils also heard about Damaris’ love of science and how she ended up becoming a Materials and Analytical Scientist at AWE. You can read more about Damaris and her work as a STEM ambassador here.
Charity support
We have a long history of supporting local charities.
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