Seeking ‘Engineers in the Making’: Academy sets engineering challenges children can do at home
Academy sets engineering challenges children can do at home
The Royal Academy of Engineering has today launched an exciting new Engineers in the Making competition for school children aged 7 to 14, across the UK. The Academy is looking for budding engineers to take on challenges and show off their creativity, imagination and problem-solving skills.
The Academy’s education team have chosen their most practical, hands-on activities to encourage students to try tinkering, investigating and problem finding and solving, reflecting real-life engineering challenges. All activities use things you can find in your home and have simple instructions.
A new challenge will be set every two weeks and students will be asked to send in photos or a short video along with one or two sentences to explain what they did. The best entries can choose from a selection of prizes including a power and play K.Nex set or a robot to build and programme. Parents, carers and teachers are invited to send in competition entries on behalf of the students to [email protected] or share them on Twitter by tagging @EduRAEng and using the hashtag #EngineersInTheMaking.
Find out more about the competition here
In addition to the competition, the Academy has compiled all its Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) challenges in one place for use by teachers working remotely with their students or by parents home-schooling their children.
Find the engineering challenges here
The challenges vary from making plastic and exploding volcanoes to STEM projects that invite young learners to problem find, problem solve and get creative using materials they have at home. Typical items required include a torch, scissors, glue, cornflour, paper and cardboard.
Videos on YouTube guide parents, teachers and students through the challenges and offer support and suggestions for some of the activities. The challenges are aimed at upper primary and lower secondary but can be easily adapted and used with older and younger children.
Watch a video guide for the Light saver challenge here
Most importantly, the activities are about getting stuck in, making mistakes, asking questions, building, designing, experimenting and having fun!
Parents and teachers are invited to follow the education team on Twitter at @EduRAEng for more tips and ideas.
Notes for Editors
- Royal Academy of Engineering
As the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, we bring together the most successful and talented engineers from academia and business – our Fellows – to advance and promote excellence in engineering for the benefit of society.
We harness their experience and expertise to provide independent advice to government, to deliver programmes that help exceptional engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, to engage the public with engineering and to provide leadership for the profession.
We have three strategic priorities:
- Make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and businesses
- Address the engineering skills and diversity challenge
- Position engineering at the heart of society
We bring together engineers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, educators and the public in pursuit of these goals.
Engineering is a global profession, so we work with partners across the world to advance engineering’s contribution to society on an international, as well as a national scale.
For more information please contact: Victoria Runcie at the Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. 0207 766 0620; email: [email protected]
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