Year 9 Visit to Sandhurst

On the 26th and 27th of September 2019, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst welcomed around two thousand young people for their Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers fair, RMAS STEM 19. Forty-nine industry partners, as well as units from across the Army, joined the Army to showcase STEM skills in action.

30 Year 9 Students attended this event: a fantastic opportunity for the students to explore different STEM careers, we were also fortunate to witness the Army’s first all-female parachute display team who landed onto the lawn in front of Old College.

A big thank you to EduFund who partially funded this trip.

“On Thursday 26th September we went to The Sandhurst Military Academy. It was such a good, inspiring event. We saw so many different companies who help improve our technology and the military. When we arrived, we split into groups to look at around all the stands; this was a fun and interactive experience, with leaflets and free pens and bags. There were also Army Troops scattered around who told us about what they do and how all the different types of machinery work. It was an exhilarating trip and I would love to do it again.” Mariam Shakir

“We loved the range of activities offered there and we are happy we got the opportunity to learn more about STEM subjects and professions. The talk given was very inspiring and made us think about our future careers. Would definitely recommend.” Lucy and Ruby

“Sandhurst had lots of new and interesting job ideas and we found out a lot about STEM jobs. There were lots of interactive things like quizzes, VR headsets, building things, playing games to win prizes and Army trucks to look at. We saw lots of new ideas for jobs and now we are more interested in this industry.” Sophie and Emma

Robotics Action

Congratulations to the girls who took part in the first Robotics competition of the session. This took place at John Warner School on the 28th September.

This seasons competition is called ‘Tower Takeover’.

VEX Robotics Competition Tower Takeover is played on a 12’x12’ square field configured as seen above. Two (2) Alliances – one (1) “red” and one (1) “blue” – composed of two (2) Teams each – compete in matches consisting of a fifteen (15) second Autonomous Period, followed by a one minute and forty-five second (1:45) Driver Controlled Period.

The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing Alliance by placing Cubes in Towers, or scoring Cubes in Goals.

The Presdales School finished the day in 13th position.

Many thanks to the continued support from EduFund.

Physics Trip: PPMA Convention, Birmingham (3^rd October 2019)

The 2019 PPMA physics trip was aimed at exposing Presdales physics students to engineering (mainly in the food industry).

We were given a private tour around a few selected stands, where experts in different engineering fields talked to us about their individual aspects of engineering including: packaging, the use of lasers in safety sensors in factories, the use of UV light in hygiene and the use of automated machines. Furthermore, we saw demonstrations of packaging machines in action. Manufactures also addressed how they are striving to reduce the use of plastic in food packaging by either cutting down the amount of material used to package an item or by changing to more environmentally friendly material solutions. Everyone was given the opportunity to have a VR experience of what it is like to be inside Bloodhound (a car currently being developed to break the land speed record). Soon after, we programmed gyroscope robots to push balls into goal areas: Presdales School set that day’s record of 10 balls.

A presentation was given by a local Hertfordshire engineering company, promoting apprenticeships as well as what it is to be a mechanical engineer. In addition, another speaker told us about his journey through his engineering career.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip as there were interactive tasks and I was inspired to take a deeper look into what physics as a subject could do for me in my future.

Georgia Ridley (Year 12)