Helping in a Humanitarian Crisis: STEAMfest 2023!

Our annual KS2 celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Maths (STEAM), was a bright day this year as both the brilliant ideas of our visitors and the wonderful sunshine lit up Ten Acre Field!

Seven schools brought their Year 5 pupils to Leighton Park on Thursday 25^th May to discover how STEAM can help in a humanitarian crisis. The schools were organised into three sessions, Katesgrove Primary first, followed by The Hill Primary, Emmer Green Primary and St Teresa’s Catholic Academy, and finally Waverley School, Caversham Prep and Maltman’s Green. They tackled three challenges in teams of five: how to transport essential aid on a raft, how to transport water effectively, and how to build a storm proof shelter.

STEAM Co-Ordinator and event mastermind, Mark Budge, commented, “I think this one has been fantastic. STEAM is all about the cross-curricular, the three different activities really lent themselves to that. It was the problem solving and the creativity that was so great to see. I loved some of the ideas that came up. The teachers facilitate it of course but it was our Leighton Park students who really brought it alive, they were brilliant; they are what makes it such a success.

The ‘essential aid’ items, which included medicines, blankets, water purification tablets, and clothing, were represented by eggs which had to be moved on a raft made out of spaghetti and marshmallows. Several structures suffered from large hole too big to hold the eggs, shredded marshmallows disintegrating in water and thin spaghetti joints collapsing under the weight of their egg cargos! The winning structures, which were designed by the most successful teams as either an octogon or a hexagon, held an impressive eight eggs! Chemistry teacher, Rachel Milhofer, who led the activity, enthused, “STEAMfest is a wonderful event; to see the joy on the children’s faces as they get to try something that they don’t get to do in other situations. Some were really worried about how to make their rafts but they were encouraged by their friends to try and improve their design and see if they could make it work. We had some fabulous teams that worked really well together and even those that didn’t work so well, could see what they needed to do to improve. It’s a great example of ‘ It’s not failure,  it’s an early stage in ‘ and you can build on what you’ve done and improve it always. They all seemed to have a really good time. They were a pleasure to have here.” Rio (Lower Sixth), part of the LP Scholars team, laughed, “I’s a bit sticky but the children did really well. Some rafts floated well with others falling apart and sinking!”. Zara from Caversham Prep was pleased with her experience, “ I like the raft building because we managed to get five eggs on our raft and we won! I also liked the cookies!”

The shelter building got everyone giggling as they braved the onslaught of the fierce storm aka DT teacher, Jeff, wielding a hose! The excited pupils were shown how a tripod could be built out of three sticks and a small bungee. Their imaginations ran riot as they then combined this knowledge with their other equipment, shaping shelters out of tarpaulins, plastic tubing, some long rope and up to twelve sticks each. The ultimate test was whether anyone in the team got soaked when the storm arrived; despite the shouting no-one seemed to mind a bit of a splash! Jeff reflected, “It’s a great way for KS2 children to problem solve and have an experience of iterative design. They look at how their shelters collapse and then have to rebuild them and try to improve them. I think they get a lot out of it.” St Teresa’s teachers were pleased to see their pupils enjoying the activity: “It’s been fantastic. The children have been really engaged and they’ve had lots of help along the way. The film we had yesterday certainly helped them understand what they were coming here for and what a humanitarian crisis is and what it entails. They’ve enjoyed the tent building the most I think because of the potential of getting wet but in fact they made such good tents they didn’t get wet!”. One of the Year 5s from St Teresa’s is now a lot more confident too saying, “If I ever got stuck in the wilderness by myself I would now know what to do.”

Transporting water between two buckets using two tarpaulins, some rope, bungees and sticks was a test for our Physics team to solve. Forces and momentum were key concepts for those wanting to win with several teams forgetting gravity might be helpful here! The bucket collecting the water was weighed in by our LP STEAM team which included STEAM. DT and Academic scholars. Rafe (Year 10) who helped with the activity commented, “I think It’s pretty cool because it introduces young kids into STEAM earlier.”

Our CTEC Sports students in the Sixth Form and our Sports Leaders Award CAS students in Year 10 delivered some excellent entertainment in the breaks with the chance to dance! The macarena and YMCA proved popular and the option of football was equally well received. Energy levels were topped up with Oakview’s delicious cookies and those who stayed with us for lunch picnicked in the shade of the park’s many trees.

Year 5 teacher, Shakira Whight from The Hill Primary was delighted with the day, “This is our first year at STEAMfest and we had a really, really good time. It’s given all the children the opportunity to work together and they’ve learnt lots about a humanitarian crisis. We set a homework task on it and lots of children came back and shared what they thought were important things to have in a humanitarian crisis. They’ve really, really enjoyed themselves.” Sara Douglas, Year 5 teacher at Waverley School agreed, “I think  It’s wonderful, it’s a great opportunity for the children to work collaboratively and think about things they can do to help people in crises,. A fantastic experience for them.”  Lucy from Caversham Prep summed up the day for everyone, “I enjoyed everything! It’s really fun and I’d like to do it again!” with her classmate Oscar adding, “We get to make things but we also get to get wet which is really fun!”