Supporting STEM Education in Wales

BCS South Wales has worked with SeeScience to help the public understand the importance of STEM subjects and to help young people develop a lasting interest in STEM.

Our STEM outreach work use LEGO MindStorms kits to help primary and secondary pupils to learn about computing and especially coding, in interesting and practical ways. We have created a series of lessons and helped teachers to deliver them (often doing this online to schools anywhere in Wales). For the public, we’ve taken our kits to exhibitions and science fairs.

Our aims

Our lessons help pupils learn:

• what a robot is;
• about the tasks robots can do now and potentially could do in the future;
• what the main components of a robot are;
• how a robot can respond to the environment around it;
• the basic concepts of how to program a robot, and;
• Relate robotics to other topics they know about.

Past activities

For the past ten years, we have built a team of STEM ambassadors, IT professionals, communications specialists and teachers to create our lessons and put together our public demonstrations. Our team also supports the DVLA Code Challenge each year.

Our early work was all in person. When COVID struck, we adapted to working online and can now offer to help both online and in person.

Our lesson plan and videos are all available, in English and Welsh, to STEM Ambassadors on the STEM Resource Hub.

Photos:
1. Lego Robots training day for volunteers in October 2017.
2. Lego Mindstorm kit, configured to play Tic-tac.
3. Volunteers delivering a Lego Robots demonstration at Margam Castle in August 2019

Key Activities

In addition to the regular activities outlined above, we are also invited to key events in Wales, many of which draw in thousands of visitors. Some of these being the “In it Together” music festival at Margam, the Erdd Eisteddfod, the National Eisteddfod, Teen Tech events and more. Our volunteers enjoy both their own activities at these events and the excitement and atmosphere of these large events.

The volunteers who help at these events enjoy showcasing their STEM profession, seeing the smiles and interest from their audience and learning new skills and knowledge for their own development.

To expand on what we can deliver and to share the workload, we are always keen to welcome new volunteers to the group from across Wales.

How to get involved

If you would like to know more and perhaps get involved, please let us know by contacting the BCS South Wales branch chair by email at swales-chair@bcs.org.uk and he will put you in contact with project members to answer any questions you may have.