RAF Youth & STEM with Hyett Education at the Scottish National Museum of Flight
During February we jetted off to Edinburgh to join with the Royal Air Force Youth & STEM team to put on two full days of STEM workshops for a host of Scottish Primary schools.
Located at the Scottish National Museum of Flight at East Fortune Airfield, children from years 5 and 6 (KS2), from six different Scottish primary schools joined our crew for workshops in both robotics and drones.
The schools that took part were:
Musselburgh Burgh Primary School, Mussellburgh
Aberlady Primary School, Longniddry
St Martins Primary School, Tranent
Letham Mans Primary School, East Lothian
Stoneyhill Primary School, Mussellburgh
Pencaitland Primary School, Tranent
Hyett Education teacher Adam, introducing the children to basic coding.
The children were challenged to think about how the Royal Air Force contributes in times of natural disaster. We asked the children in each session to think about what earthquake victims might need, in terms of both rescue, and how the RAF could get aid to victims. All the children were lively and engaged, exploring how using robots and drones can be vital in getting aid to people in hard to reach or dangerous areas.
The children then set to task in designing and building their own robots with the idea that they could be used to transport food, blankets or medicine into an earthquake zone. It was such a fun and lively workshop to be part of and the children were incredibly excited. Adding a real-life scenario to robotics and coding challenges helps a younger audience to understand the role of technology and its huge impact, in circumstances where they may not have thought about the application of STEM concepts.
Our team had such a brilliant time leading these workshops, working with the RAF Youth & STEM Team and soaking up the atmosphere at the National Museum of Flight; the icing on the cake was teaching the excited and enthusiastic children who joined us.
“The STEM activities on offer were superb and very different to anything that we have in school so the pupils were all very engaged and didn't want to robot coding to end. Thank you so much for a fun-filled and educational day. It was the most fun that we've had on a school trip.”
Lauren Berry, Class Teacher, Pencaitland Primary School
Our trip to Scotland was really one to remember and we can't wait for our next set of events in Glasgow, Fife and Inverness in May and June 2024.