STEM Outreach Programme

This week, 16 lucky Year 9 students were specially selected to take part in the launch of a STEM outreach programme sponsored by JP Morgan and Imperial College London. Twelve  mentors from J.P. Morgan in Canary Wharf and two from Imperial College London visited the academy to work with the selected group of students.  Activities involved students being divided into two teams to work on building and racing robots.  The students will also be working alongside the mentors from both institutions at their respective locations in a competition over the next few months.

On Tuesday 9th of October the students were taken to the J.P. Morgan offices with their mentors. This session involved all eleven schools, and their respective mentors participating in the project, to listen to a series of lectures from scientists and engineers who are currently working on climate change and pollution. This was a very impressive selection of professionals who discussed very new and cutting edge science with our students, which they learnt a lot from.

The mentors are very successful professionals who are volunteering their time to work alongside our students for the next ten weeks. For this project the Mayor of London has set them the challenge of “making London a better place to live” using the categories of air quality, urban biodiversity or sustainable city.  The students and mentors began thinking about the concept idea they will work on and over the coming weeks, the students will have access to subject specialists and specialist equipment including 3D printers and laser cutters  at the Invention Room, White City. With this expertise, the students will  take their concept through to a physical prototype which they will display during a presentation at the finale at the Science Museum in February 2019.

We are so impressed with the students attitude and engagement on this fantastic project and we really look forward to watching them grow and learn over the next few weeks.