Mrs Martin (Head of Year 3, Science Coordinator)

On Wednesday, pupils from the Junior School, Year 9 and the Lower Sixth and various schools across Bedford came together at the University of Bedfordshire to participate in the STEM Ambassador training programme, with the girls taking centre stage as trainers.

The Institute of Physics (IOP) trained the Lower Sixth girls first in how to deliver six different experiments to demonstrate Life in Space and explain the science behind them to a particular audience. They focused on communication skills and what makes a good presenter.

The Junior School pupils were split into small groups and joined a mixed team of Year 9 students, who also carried out several space themed experiments with them.

The afternoon started with an icebreaker, where the groups were challenged to build the tallest tower, to seat the Institute of Physics’ mascot. It was exciting to see how quickly all the girls worked as a team to complete the task.

Empowering the Year 9 students with passing on their expertise to the younger girls (learnt themselves from the Sixth Formers earlier that day), enabled them to embed their new skills and provided a fantastic learning opportunity for the Junior School girls.

The Junior School pupils were outstanding in the delivery of their understanding of the activity, we are incredibly proud of the skills they so eloquently and confidently displayed.

All girls were made STEM ambassadors by the IOP, something that they will be able to cite through their school career and beyond. We hope that this will help girls to feel confident in promoting STEM to their peers and consider future career paths in the field.