Pupils from Park Grove Primary Academy became the first primary students in the UK to complete a real-world industry challenge originally developed for older children.
Pupils from classes 8 and 9 spent a day designing a new classroom with the help industry experts, as part of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) week.
The brief was develop, design and engineer their own building, which had to be eco friendly. It was to be built in the school grounds. It had to work alongside the recently opened Urban Buzz wildflower garden and support pollinators such as bees and prevent their numbers decreasing
The project was team-based and approached in the same way professional architects would. Each step was carefully laid-down and ground designs and solutions evaluated by the experts.
Alison Watson, founder/creator of Class of Your Own and Design, Engineer, Construct (DEC) was impressed with the standard and creativity of the work completed.
The children’s ideas included bug hotels within walls, glass ceilings and domes to allow star-gazing at night, recycled glass walls made of bottles, sloped roofs to allow rain to drain off and be collected to water the Urban Garden…and much more!
Teacher Miss Platts said “The children loved it as it allowed them to use and apply skills they didn’t think they would do out of school and inspired them into thinking about STEM related jobs, or even just inspiring them to be more interested in STEM related subjects. Jobs such as architects, engineers, branding designers, marketing designers, even company directors.”
