Year 9 Create Their Future with TeenTech

Returning to school after the May Day Bank Holiday, a number of students from Year 9 were eager create their future with TeenTech, an organisation dedicated to stimulating entrepreneurial spirit and helping young people understand opportunities around STEAM.

Welcomed to the event by TeenTech host and long-standing reporter on all things technology, Kate Russell, within minutes students were learning how artificial intelligence is applied to real world contexts, such as behind the scenes at Dubai International Airport. Year 9 were quickly intrigued to understand how a business such as this can grow within its existing infrastructure and get smarter, rather than bigger.

In their interactive morning session, Katy Stead and Keith Cox from Bloc Digital spoke about how technology gives them a world of possibilities, from exploring their imaginations to improving people’s lives, to playing with the latest gadgets.

Matt Wallwork from BT highlighted the amount of innovation that happens in the sector, whilst Dan Ayers from the BBC shared how technology enhances the way we tell stories. Thomas Leggett, Lead Research Engineer at Thatcham Research enthused, live from the centre’s Crash Lab, “We get to see some of the latest kit and ask questions that no one knows the answers to and we have to figure it out, so that is really exciting.”

After covering a range of topics such as The Internet of Things, Robotics, Virtual and Augmented Reality, students were then set the challenge of making the world a safer, smarter and kinder place to live, using the technology they had been shown by TeenTech’s range of speakers.

Familiar with our students for their Design Nature workshops, Founders and Directors of their own sustainability businesses, Mark Mason and Erica Purvis supported students in the classroom as they  brainstormed their ideas.

Mark commented, “the students self-organised into diverse teams and tackled the challenge with great enthusiasm. Different areas of the challenge were explored and some very good concepts emerged from the session. Each team gave a two-three-minute presentation of their ideas at the end of the day and prepared their work for submission and comments by the experts – well done to everyone who took part.”

Kathy Dare, Project Manager at TeenTech praised “Your students have been working very hard! Some terrific ideas which will certainly impress the industry experts!”

Working in teams, students were able to practise skills important to contemporary industry whilst gaining an insight into the scale of exciting, emerging technology that is shaping all aspects of our lives, making our homes, workplaces and cities safer and smarter.

Having been allocated two days to complete their challenge, students will submit their projects for expert feedback on Friday, where they will also have the opportunity to quiz the experts on their own careers.