First LEGO League Challenge Regional Finals
 

First® Lego® League Challenge is a global competition for young people aged 9 to 16, run in the UK by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

See Science were once again delighted to support this season’s First® Lego® League Challenge, thereby inspiring young people to understand the basics of STEM by applying their skills in an exciting competition while building habits of learning, confidence, and teamwork skills along the way.

This year See Science delivered four regional tournaments at Ysgol Harri Tudur, Willowtown Primary School, Coleg Merthyr and the University of South Wales. Across all four events, forty teams of students from primary and secondary schools across South Wales took up the challenge on the infamous ‘Challenge Mat’ with their bespoke Lego® programmable SPIKE Prime or EV3 robots. All teams did an amazing job and congratulations to the winners who will be going onto the UK finals in Harrogate.

See Science were delighted and grateful to be supported throughout all 4 events by STEM Ambassadors who acted as referees and judges.  

Here’s what some of them had to say:

Karl Gilmore, Transport for Wales: “An absolute pleasure to support Cerian Angharad and other See Science colleagues this week at Merthyr College, along with other STEM Ambassadors to help with the First Lego League Challenge.

An impressive collection of talented young people from various Valleys schools, displaying their teamwork and coding skills.”

Lewis Davies, BDO Eaton Square: “I was blown away by the hard work and clever ideas from the ten teams who took part. They showed amazing teamwork and problem-solving skills.

Events like this are so important because they show students that STEM can be exciting and fun. They also help them learn to work together and think in new ways. Thanks to all the students, teachers, and organisers who made this day awesome!”

If you would like to consider taking part next year, you can find more information here.

Please ensure that you sign up in August to receive the kits at the begining of term 

Demystifying Semiconductors: Exploring the Technology behind modern Electronics. Wednesday 17 April. Bangor University

One-day events, during spring and summer 2024, for year 10, 11 & 12 students from secondary schools in Wales, to explore the world of electronics and demystify semiconductors. Schools or individual students can book their place at these events. During the day, participants will find out more about Electronics and studying the subject at university level. There will also be a ‘hands on’ introduction to microcontrollers, guided tours and opportunities to speak with current students & teaching staff.

There are 3 separate events:
Bangor University, Wednesday April 17th. Book here.
Cardiff Metropolitan University, Monday June 24th. Book here.
University of South Wales (Pontypridd Campus), Wednesday July 3rd. Book here.

Airbus Career Advisors Day. Wednesday 17 April, 08:30 - 16:00. Broughton

Careers Advisors are cordially invited to spend the day at Airbus in Broughton.

They are offering you the opportunity to expand your knowledge of STEM careers within Airbus and discover more about the apprenticeships that they offer.

During the day you will hear first-hand experiences from some of their current apprentices and a variety of guest speakers.

There will also be a site-tour allowing you to see some of the innovative engineering that takes place at Broughton.

If you would like to attend please email colette.affaya@airbus.com by Friday 12th April. 

We’re pleased to be joining forces once again to bring you our annual day conferences. Last year, you asked for more hands-on activities so this year RSC, IOP and a special guest will deliver three practical based workshops. 

You will have the opportunity to attend all the workshops, have time to network with colleagues from across the country and, of course, enjoy a lunch on us. 

To register for this event, sign in or register for an account on the RSC Education website here.

National Numeracy Day. Wednesday 22 May

Join our community of schools and organisations in time for the big day on Wednesday 22nd May 2024 to celebrate the numbers we use in our everyday lives!

Whether you’re promoting numeracy in a school, at home, workplace or other organisation, when you sign up you will receive a toolkit with all the free materials you need to get involved and help the nation get on with numbers.More information here

Great Science Share for Schools. June 11.

The award-winning campaign continuing to inspire 5-14 year olds to take the lead in asking, investigating and sharing scientific questions they care about with new audiences.

An inclusive, non-competitive and collaborative experience for all.
 

• Use the Great Science Skills Starters to upskill teachers and pupils to ask-investigate and share scientific questions 
• Be inspired by Great Science Ideas to inspire your pupils to start asking-investigating-sharing! 
• Use science days or special weeks, e.g. British Science Week in March 2024 to involve pupils deciding what questions they want to ask-investigate-share.

Registration is open all year which gives access to a wide array of resources to inspire your pupils into science and engineering. Details here.

The Eurekas

The Eurekas is an annual physics competition for students aged 11-16 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of the Limit Less campaign, which has been conceived by the Institute of Physics to broaden and diversify the range of people doing physics after age 16.

This year, we challenge entrants to answer the question: Can physics help us solve mysteries?

Closing date, 10 June 2024. Details here.

The Welsh Sparc Award

The award will provide financial support to students learning in Wales who are starting an undergraduate degree in #Electronics or a related course in the academic year 2024/25 at a Welsh university or one of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) partner universities.

Each of the 24 award winners will receive the following:

• A first-year bursary of £1,000 (paid in Oct 2024)
• A learning and development bursary of £1,500 (paid in Feb 2025) 
• Other benefits such as a mentor, peer support and opportunity to apply for the UKESF Scholarship Scheme

The award is part of the Spark their Imagination; power their future initiative - from the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) and Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult with the support of Innovate UK - which aims to encourage more young people in Wales to study and pursue careers in semiconductors.

Closing date for applications, Friday 19th April. Details here.

Partnership Grants for students with special educational needs and disabilities

Schools can apply for funding to support investigative research projects that are specifically tailored for students with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).

The grant enables schools to purchase equipment to carry out investigative STEM research projects in science, mathematics, engineering or computing. By taking part in these projects, students will have the opportunity to develop essential skills, such as problem solving and data handling skills, readying them for the future world of work. 

There needs to be two project partners to the scheme with the lead applicant being a school and the second partner being a STEM professional from academia or industry. Funding should predominantly be used to buy equipment. As the project involves SEND students, there are a few key areas of added flexibility in the eligibility and judging criteria.

There are three submission deadlines at the end of April, June and November.

Details here.