Before the half term, The University of Brighton hosted a fantastic STEAM Day for students that attend our STEM and carnival clubs. The students were excited and engaged as they took part in different workshops that combined engineering and technology with design and the flair of art.
They were split into 4 different workshops:
- The first group were making geodesic domes, by combining triangles into pentagons and heaxagons to build a large 3D structure, really building on their STEM knowledge. They combined this with inspiration from the artist known as ‘Mr Doodle’ to decorate their domes.
- The next group looked at random shapes in art and how they could then incorporate those shapes into creating a balanced mobile. Students were fascinated to see how random shapes could creatively produce balanced mobiles.
- One group were designing an artistic device to keep an egg safe when being dropped from height. The added challenge of this came when they had to drop it from 5 stories high!
- The last group were using a kit called ‘makey makey’ that used a programme called Scratch on the computer alongside other equipment to turn anything that can conduct electricity into piano keys. The students made drawings, such as a soundwave, then when they moved their fingers along different parts of the soundwave it played different sounds. Others were able to use a mixture of fruit and vegetables as a keyboard.
They then finished off the day making a prototype sculpture combining aspects of Brighton University with Brighton and Hove Albion. They did this by using hard rolled newspaper as a sustainable building resource to create their 3d structure, with some of them measuring a couple of meters high.
Trip leader Mr Bowman said “It was a fantastic day that really brought together STEM subjects with Art in a way that was fun and engaging for everyone involved”.
Headteacher, Caroline Barlow commented “This was a fabulous opportunity for our students, we are grateful to the University for hosting. Events like this show the ongoing recognition of the importance of the Arts alongside STEM subjects in seeking solutions to our engineering and technological challenges of the future, well done to everyone involved for their application of knowledge and creativity.”
“I loved the entire day. It was challenging at times, but really fun. I especially enjoyed when we had to build a statue to represent Brighton University and Brighton and Hove Albion working together, luckily I was in the winning group!“
Bailey Bishop, Year 7
“I enjoyed the entire day, especially when we had to make a mobile that could balance out of lots of weird shapes.” Imogen Bruce, Year 7
