inspiring tomorrow’s innovators

Thursday 19th May 2016 at Portsmouth Guildhall

TeenTech™ Solent

EBP South Ltd. 1000 Lakeside . North Harbour . Western Road . Portsmouth . PO6 3EN t.023 9228 3443 f.023 9238 1222 e.enquiries@ebpsouth.co.uk w.www.ebpsouth.co.uk

SUMMARY REPORT

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Introduction This document is a summary report displaying the views of the schools, and a selection of exhibitors who participated in TeenTech Solent 2016.

Information on the Event TeenTech is a highly interactive event designed to inspire young teenagers and their teachers about the contemporary world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. TeenTech gives Year 8/9 students and teachers the opportunity to try their hand at experiments, to handle leading edge technology and, most importantly to spend time with the Engineers, Technologists and Scientists influencing their 21st century lives. It’s a powerful intervention just before students make GCSE subject choices, dispelling gender stereotypes and shifting perceptions of careers teenagers may have considered “difficult”, “geeky” or “boring”. The event is lively but very carefully organised. Students move in small groups, through the Innovation Zone, Insight Exhibition and Challenge Zones. One of the unique features of the TeenTech experience is the support of Industry “ambassadors” who accompany small groups of students and teachers throughout the day. This year we had 26 individuals from business supporting our young people. It was a key role, because for many teenagers, the ambassadors may have been the first person working in Science, Engineering or Technology they have ever met.

Exhibitors 27 National and Local organisations/Colleges attended with cutting edge activities, and gave their time and efforts as well as donating various prizes.

Young People The day was aimed at young people in Years 8 and 9. 199 Students and their Teachers from 17 Schools attended.

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Students The young people were asked a selection of questions to enable us to find out how much they knew about STEM before they participated in TeenTech Solent. They were then asked a selection of questions about their knowledge at the end of the day. Results showed an increase in the young people’s views from the beginning to the end of the day:

How interested are you in becoming a Scientist? There was an increase of 10% (18) young people expressing ‘Fairly’ and ‘Very’ interested between the beginning and the end of the day.

How interested are you in becoming an Engineer? There was an increase of 12% (23) young people expressing ‘Fairly’ and ‘Very’ interested between the beginning and the end of the day. 38% of young people stated that they gained career ideas from their Parents. 59% of young people preferred to learn about careers through interactive events. 52% of young people said they preferred taking part in tasks and challenges to help them understand more about STEM

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What did you enjoy most?

My particular group was a little quiet and shy at the start. It was good to see them enjoy taking part, grow in confidence and engage more in the activities as the day went on.

There was a lively atmosphere to the event which kept things energetic and exciting. I also enjoyed the fact that us as ambassadors got to experience the stands/exhibits with the kids which at times proved educational to me too. I thought the challenge section was really good, but the whole thing was a success. What changes would most improve TeenTech? Extend the time allocated for each of the big, hands on activities. We found ourselves

rushing excessively through some of the activities in order to move onto the next activity in time. More time for activities for the young people and less prize giving/back patting. Lunch

could also have been shorter. Tables cleared by students following lunch if being used for an activity. Time available for students to browse the exhibits. Schools being able to identify particular interests or topics to visit appropriate exhibits.

I wouldn't change anything.

Ambassadors

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How could we improve this activity? Giving each student a specific role to fulfil would probably help to ensure that everyone

contributed at least somewhat. I know it would be tough in terms of time but to have one of the 'judges' come around

the tables during the activity to briefly discuss the idea and give encouragement would help.

Improve the information for teachers/ambassadors attending so the they could advise more appropriately. Provide experts to discuss ideas and help with the circuits diagrams as this was particularly confusing.

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What additional information would have been helpful? None, all provided was very helpful. None, all current info is perfect! Maybe consider an outside event – weather pending of

course. The number of the “free periods” that we had. What did you enjoy most? The groups of children that were enthusiastic. Giving information to the school groups on my career and letting them try out some of

the activities we had. The enthusiasm shown by the children, makes it all worthwhile. How willing the students were to get involved. Being part of such a great event – meeting new friends i.e. business, school etc – the

atmosphere – the support and kindness from everyone. Great to see the young kids thinking and joining in. As with all outreach events, seeing young people being enthused by my subject area. What changes would most improve TeenTech? None all went very well and we all enjoyed ourselves. I wonder if it would be beneficial if you asked the kids prior to their visit who they would

most like to see and this way hopefully, they would be more fully engaged as some didn’t want to know about certain careers. I think it works very well as it stands – my only small gripe was the number of free sessions we had in the programme, though I appreciate that schools may drop out which is out of the organisers’ control.

Organisations

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What were your views on the venue and facilities? The venue and facilities were good. There was not enough space for our challenge zone and being in the main hall meant

that it was difficult for the children to hear us and then when the children took part in the activity we were told we were too noisy! Allow for more space and think about noise from other activities.

The venue was very good and provided a good sized space for our activities. Great venue, acceptable facilities. The weather was perfect, shame we were indoors The Guildhall venue is impressive, and facilities good. The only slight problem we had

was trying to talk over the rather noisy activity next to us. Please give us feedback on your encounters with the students. Were you surprised by any of their questions or comments? We were really pleased with the response from the students. Some of them really know

their stuff on science and were happy to learn more. Was surprised that some of the children had not interest in science. Got the impression

that they did not choose to come to the event. We found them all enthusiastic and engaged in the activity. They were clearly very keen

to take part. All students were very interactive and asked very good questions relevant to the activities we provided .

“TeenTech was great, being able to interact with different schools around Portsmouth to show what we do here at Highbury was great and the students loved the session too!” Will Marks, Trainer in IT & WorldSkills UK Web Development Lead Judge, Department of Computing, Business and Digital Technologies at Highbury College

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Wärtsilä UK Ltd are proud to have sponsored and contributed to the TeenTech Solent event, held at the Portsmouth Guildhall on 19th May 2016. Wärtsilä have been involved with EBP South for many exciting events in the past three years, main-ly at careers based fairs along with sponsoring TeenTech Solent in 2015, too. Wärtsilä now have a growing relationship with EBP South, supporting schools and colleges to help students appreciate the value of STEM and give them a real life insight into engineering as a career. Wärtsilä staged a Challenge Zone 30-minute competitive activity and helped with volunteering with 3 STEM Ambassadors (Gavin Williams, James Robb & Paul Cooper-Brunink) who come from differ-ent engineering backgrounds in Wärtsilä. We put together a team to brainstorm ideas for the Challenge zone activity, with the outcome of many potential future projects. We decided to use an existing demonstration rig, mounted with an actual propeller shaft seal of the type used for a small size ship/marine vessel. A shaft seal is used on every type of vessel, to mechanically seal and prevent water entering (and stop it sinking!) where the propeller shaft passes through the hull. We wanted to incorporate many aspects of engineering into the activity; design engineering, hands-on problem solving and team work. The design side of the activity aimed to give an insight into CAD (Computer Aided Design). CAD is widely used amongst many engineering and de-sign companies, nowadays every product has an aspect of CAD incorporated within their design processes. We wanted to give the students real-life examples of design models and technical draw-ings, to help them understand our day to day jobs. As a female engineer, it was extremely benefi-cial to show the female students that engineering isn’t just about spanners and being covered in grease to physically fix something – which is mainly why girls lose interest. So it was important to educate them in terms of diversity and the opportunities open to all in engineering.

Continued overleaf . . ./ . . .

A CASE STUDY

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The hands-on side of the activity was designed to be fun and interactive. We had a lot of preparation put into it, including instructions, presentations, animations and 3D models. A labelled 3D drawing of the shaft seal assembly was used to help the students identify each component and aid their build. The rig was filled and pressurised with water so the aim for the students was to achieve a successful build in good time, with no leak. They were marked on time, teamwork, quality of build and water tightness. The students engaged extremely well with the activity, especially the girls with outstanding performances! This Shaft Seal Build activity has now expanded to in-house training in Wärtsilä Seals and Bearings, from a successful outcome at TeenTech, this is to give primarily non-technical staff an insight into the products. The Wärtsilä engineering team (John Thornhill, James Robb, Gavin Williams, Paul Cooper-Brunink & Selma Selamet) would like to thank EBP South and TeenTech for the opportunity to get involved with an inspiring event and look forward to future work encouraging students to consider a career in engineering.

Selma Selamet, Design Engineer, Wärtsilä UK Ltd (Seals & Bearings)

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TEACHERS

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What changes would most improve TeenTech? Less thank you’s and talking at the end, especially as the pupils had no idea who they

were (and some of the staff) – this could have been reduced and another session added in earlier in the day.

Separate room for the Challenge Zone as it was quite loud at times during the presenta-tion in the main hall.

Tell us what you liked/disliked Group schools on the tables by when they are doing this activity so they can use their

own tables to avoid mess. All the activities we took part in were excellent. It was hard to drag them away. The

lego houses would have benefited from a discussion or pictures to inspire pupils before they begun, just so they were a bit more creative

All zones were excellent and pupils were completely engrossed.

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An official thank you to our Regional Headline Sponsor:

“The TeenTech event was a great success, with a record number of young people and employers taking part this year. I was absolutely delighted to see so many young people from Hampshire schools in one place. They were totally engaged and enthused by the activities and it was great to hear from many young people that they had been inspired by the employers, careers advisors and Maggie Philbin. They said they were now seriously c onsidering careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). We at Highbury College believe that we need our future generation to be learning and developing the skills that are required in the UK to address the skills shortage. We will be sponsoring the event again next year, as we believe that young people need to be encouraged and inspired to develop their skills into STEM careers.” Satwant Deol, Managing Director - Technical, Creative, Academic and Professionals - Highbury College

And thank you to our Regional Sponsors

And our Ideas Wall Sponsor:

“Getting involved in TeenTech has been a great experience for the Kingfisher IT team. It’s incredible the amount of positive energy it has created internally with all the colleagues involved really relishing the opportunity to help inspire students to consider a career in IT. It’s also given them a chance to work with other people from different areas of our organisation and build new internal relationships”. Anita James, Head of IT Strategy & Architecture - Kingfisher IT Services

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A A Big Big Thank Thank

You to…You to…

Airbus Defence & Space Atkins Global BAE Systems Maritime Services Barclays Bloodhound Bouygues EATON Ltd Fareham College CEMAST Highbury College IBM UK Ltd JVCKENWOOD Laleham Health & Beauty Maplin Mary Rose Trust National Grid Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust Portsmouth Water QinetiQ REME Royal Armouries Siemens Rail and South West Trains University of Chichester University of Portsmouth University of Southampton UTC Wartsila Wickham Labs

And not forgetting the vital STEM Ambassadors who worked with the young people throughout the day:

Ian Grainger - BAE Systems Maritime Services David Jeffers - BAE Systems Maritime Services Steph Hobbs - Fareham College/CEMAST Anastasia Blake - Highbury College Anita James - Kingfisher IT Kieron Lawford - Kingfisher IT Leo Minter - Kingfisher IT Nina Trosheva - Kingfisher IT Sarah Chandler - Kingfisher IT Stu Coe - Kingfisher IT Ian Connor - Leonardo Company Christina Goode - Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust Lisa- Marie Way - Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust Clare Hedgecock - Pfizer Bob Curtis - QinetiQ Andy Dennison - Royal Navy Alan Bates - Royal Navy Paul Diggle - Royal Navy Dominic Philo - SMR Automotive Kim Donal - SMR Automotive Sam Moore - SMR Automotive Self - Philip Warren Gavin Williams - Wartsila James Robb - Wartsila Paul Cooper-Brunink - Wartsila

EBP South Ltd. 1000 Lakeside . North Harbour . Western Road . Portsmouth . PO6 3EN t.023 9228 3443 f.023 9238 1222 e.enquiries@ebpsouth.co.uk w.www.ebpsouth.co.uk

DATE PROPOSED FOR 2017:

THURSDAY 18TH MAY