Last month, sixty of our students from Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in the “Thinkers in Education” STEM Days for able mathematicians and scientists. We welcomed session leaders and former teachers Matt Hackett and Kim Jackson into school who both worked over two days with our students on the intriguingly named “Target Mars” and “Bunkered” Challenges.

Here Lauren Abramson (7B) describes her experience of Target Mars:

“During the workshop, a number of difficult tasks were completed in teams, and each team represented a country. The main title for the workshop was “Target Mars” so objectives were set as if a human were to experience the consequences of living of Mars. At the end of the workshop the team with the most points, were the winners. Some of the tasks included: discovering a mystery black powder; building a string parachute; constructing a safe buggy and making a tall, steady wind turbine. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and I like the fact that it really made me think outside the box in order to achieve success!”

Feedback from students and JCoSS staff was overwhelmingly positive and both Matt and Kim said they found working with all our students to be a great experience. They were particularly impressed with the enthusiasm shown by all and by the fact they saw a great deal of strategic thinking. We were also particularly pleased that Team Russia, taking part in the Bunkered challenge on Day Two, scored enough points to join the national leader board!  A huge well done to Josh Cowan, Jordan Lanning and Ben Pick.

It seems the event has really inspired JCoSS students to really aim for the top in their science and maths studies. We will be running the event next year, with an additional challenge, “Dead on Time“, for Years 9 and 10.