The Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW) run a wide variety of activities across Wales including the STEMCymru2 Project, providing students with the opportunity to gain practical experience working with industries, businesses and higher education – all with the objective of promoting STEM education and employment as attractive choices for young people.
EESW are a partner for FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) in Wales – a global STEM challenge for teams of young people, to encourage an interest in real-world themes and develop key skills that are crucial for their future careers. The students explore a given scientific topic and plan, program and test an autonomous robot to solve several missions. The challenge is split into 4 sections; Robot Design, Robot Games, Innovation Project, and Core Values.
University of Wales Trinity Saint David and MADE Cymru lecturer Jaymie Phillips has been asked to judge the South-East Wales final events in June. Judges will be given access in advance to a ‘Remote Event Hub’ where teams will upload their materials to be reviewed. On the day of the virtual event, school teams will each be given a 1 hour live virtual assessment call with their judging panel, to include time for judges’ questions and scoring. Each panel of judges will have a deliberation session once the assessment slot is complete, where they will then screenshare the scoresheet for each judging area and submit this to the Hub.
Jaymie Phillips said, “I am incredibly excited about being a judge in this competition. I have always loved LEGO® and the way it can be used as a teaching tool to create, solve and innovate products. This is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate to our young people in Wales that STEM subjects are attractive career choices. I teach manufacturers about how adopting new technologies can boost their processes and products – it’s not too dissimilar to what these talented young people are doing.”
Rebecca Davies, EESW Chief Operating Officer said “We are really grateful to all organisations that have provided volunteers for this year’s virtual FIRST® LEGO® League events. It is a pleasure to be able to run these events to celebrate the success of pupils who have been able to engage with the activity remotely. EESW STEMCymru will continue to provide young people with the opportunity to take part in exciting projects such as this thanks to extended funding through the European Social Fund and the Welsh Government.”
MADE Cymru is a suite of programmes designed to navigate organisations through Industry 4.0 via collaborative research & development and upskilling. Funded by the European Social Fund/European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. Delivered by University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Visit www.madecymru.ac.uk, call 01792 481199 or [email protected]