We were delighted to welcome a visitor from STEM Works into school to run an exciting Primary STEM Challenge with our Year 5 pupils.
Thirty pupils were set a real-world engineering task: to design and build a brand-new ride for West Midlands Safari Park using K’NEX. The design specification challenged pupils to create a ride that could carry eight people, was animal-themed, and included moving parts.
Working in teams, the children planned, built, tested and refined their ideas before presenting their finished rides to the group. The variety of designs was impressive, with pupils showing creativity, problem-solving skills and a clear understanding of the design brief.
Throughout the workshop, pupils demonstrated excellent teamwork and communication, as well as important personal skills such as resilience when designs didn’t work first time, and respect for one another’s ideas.
It was a fantastic hands-on learning experience that brought STEM subjects to life and inspired our pupils to think like real engineers and designers.
