Bath Royal Literary and Scientific InstitutionJunior Science Programmeat the Curo Boardroom, Foxhill:STEM Workshop

We have been invited to teach the joy of computer science at the STEM workshops run by the BRLSI Junior Science programme in the Curo boardroom in Foxhill in Bath.

These girls worked hard to understand screen co-ordinates and speed as the inverse of travel time, so that they could make an animation for their mothers.

BRLSI Junior Science programme does a lot of activities to inspire kids into STEM, which we regularly help with. Curo are providing space to run the Junior Science activities for children and families who might find it difficult to come to BRLSI events in the centre of town.

Curo and BRLSI have also worked together to fund iPads and littleBits, so that Danielle and I can do creative computing and electronics activities with the children. The big screen at the Curo Board Room at Foxhill, is a fantastic opportunity to put on a show!

“Tom is having a pleasant day, wandering along in the sunshine when he stubbles into a thorn bush. He gets out, getting cuts and scratches, but falls into a vortex. Tom returns eventually and has an ice-cream to recover.”

In Juniors we introduce computing as digital story making, to make it meaningful and to reinforce the literacy curriculum. The children’s motivation to produce good stories allows us to reinforce maths topics from the curriculum and computational thinking. Happily, some schools are letting pupils make Scratch presentations for school work.

This girl confidently created a story about a hungry dog eating it’s owner’s pizza. The owner was not happy.

This past month has been super busy — the schools’ clubs — plus a littleBits workshop at the University of Oxford Museum of the History of Science, and our own hack day for the Internet of Things in the Guildhall, Bath.

Next month we have planned — the schools’ clubs — plus STEM Workshops with BRLSI at 4 Curo venues around Bath (Foxhill, Snowhill, Twerton and Julian Road) and maybe another hack day in the Guildhall.