The Holmesdale School, a well-established, 11-18 years mixed secondary school in Snodland, Kent was thrilled to be supported by The STEM Hub Central South & South East as part of Engineering UK’s Big Bang at Schools programme, aimed at young people aged 11-14 years to run a space themed afternoon event on 27 March 2023.

The event consisted of three aspects: a pop-up planetarium showcased by Starlight STEM Limited, an engineering project to build a marble run supported by The STEM Hub and an inspiring talk delivered by a STEM Ambassador who previously worked at the European Space Agency.

Students from years 7, 9 and 11 were able to learn about STEM careers in a fun and engaging way and were shown aspects of the GCSE Physics curriculum for enrichment and revision.

A visiting speaker commented that he enjoyed the afternoon immensely and has offered to run a ‘CanSat’ programming activity at a later date.

Event Lead and Science Teacher, Kim Vale said: “The students thoroughly enjoyed their space and engineering activities and gained an insight into a couple of careers that they had not known about previously. Events and opportunities like this are important to help students understand why we study STEM subjects."

The students had an amazing afternoon and commented on the activities:

• “I really enjoyed making the marble run and found it challenging and we had a good sense of achievement to make something that worked.” 
• “It was really hard to complete the marble run in the time allowed, but we worked as a team and made a working model.”
• "I loved the planetarium, it makes physics more interesting when we see things like that!"

The school’s technician commented: “What a great opportunity for our students, hopefully next time we will be able to include more of our students.”

The Holmesdale School was grateful to everyone who helped make the event a huge success and planning has already started for another event in 2024!

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