STEM Day leaves Year 9 students better informed of academic route
The School of Physical Sciences’, Faculty Outreach Group hosted the annual Year 9 STEM taster days at the beginning of the New Year. Over 200 pupils from 14 schools across Merseyside attended this year’s event held in the Central Teaching Laboratories.
The Department of Physics’ ‘Physics Outreach Group’ provided 2 out of 9 activities designed to give year 9 pupils some hands on experience of the subjects and provide them some insight to make an informed choice in their upcoming GCSE options. This is supported by a careers session in which the pupils complete a set of questions based on the latest prospectus and consider what degree course they may want to pursue, what the A-Level requirements are and hence what GCSEs they will need.
Our undergraduates Jennifer Graham and Thomas George enthralled the guests in our inflatable planetarium, exploring the planets and visiting stars at different stages in their life cycles. The second physics session was more ‘hands-on’ and pupils were delighted to learn about our sun and EM radiation, simulating opposing forces in nuclear fusion, i.e. electrostatic vs gravitational, in our activity ‘Forces Wrestling’, looking at 3D hologram projections and building a standing wave machine using bamboo skewers, duct tape and marshmallows!