Our STEM Day at SSFC

Last week, several students from Concord College’s Form 3 attended a STEM day at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College. This was an event where we took part in numerous scientific activities. We were split into groups and arranged so that we were in a team with two other students from a different school. My group was A2, and my Concord partner was Temirlan. I think that our group was very varied and that each person had their own strengths.

For our first activity, we had to program a small robot (created by Lego) to move in different shapes. We were then asked to program our robot so that, when it moves across a board, it passes over as many crosses as possible… But, when sensing the red crosses and black tape, it goes back and changes direction, and when sensing a wall 20 centimetres away, reverses. This was a very interesting task since we never used this particular program before. However working as a team, we implemented the procedure rather well, and managed to win that class.

Next, we had a different scientific challenge, focusing on medicine. The teachers introduced us to different “patients” and gave us their symptoms. From there, we learnt about what to test and how, to see what health issues they may have. This was really fun but also educational – learning about various methods I had never heard of.

The third exercise was about something called “EFIT6”. This is a program used by police to identify a criminal’s face. When a crime occurs (that’s been witnessed), the witness describes the criminal to the police, who then use that program to construct the approximation of their face. We were taught about how to use it and then we were asked to copy Mr Rawlinson’s face. This was quite fun and we had debates about the shapes of his nose and mouth… We tried to not be brutally honest, and that, (we like to believe) is why we came second, not first.

However, there was one more surprise for us. The Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire, Sir Algernon Eustace Heber-Percy made an appearance. We talked to him a little, shook his hand and had our picture taken with him when he awarded us with our prizes.

All in all, we had a great day with many wonderful and interesting activities. I highly recommend this to future Form 3 students if they like trying new things, enjoy STEM and believe in having an open mind.

Ecaterina – F3