Necessity is the mother of invention for young King’s School scientists as they devoted a week of science lessons to designing, developing and producing a lifesaving project.
National ‘Science and Engineering Week’ saw King’s Year 7 girls and boys tasked with the project to build floating fields to help flood victims in Bangladesh.
Peoples in the sub-continent have for centuries grappled with the problem of maintaining their agricultural systems during monsoon rains. Now with global warming the problem is getting worse and they have devised floating fields and gardens that rise with the flood water.
But just how do they do that? That was the question posed by King’s Science Teacher Daniel Deakin.
Daniel said: “Although there are an increasing number of career opportunities not just in Britain but worldwide for students with excellent STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subject skills, there hasn’t been a significant increase in students nationally choosing those subjects.”
“We want to engage their minds at a young age by giving them a project which might at first seem impossible but, when thought through, can be achieved with invention, logical problem solving and collaboration.”
“We suspend curriculum-based science lessons for a whole week to focus on science and engineering and let pupils tackle this challenge, working in small groups to achieve the objective.”
Daniel added: “It also gives the children an insight into the sort of challenges communities in the Developing World face on a daily basis.”
Pictured with Mr Deakin are on the left Matilda Machin and on the right Freya Ambrey-Brosnahan, who are both 12 and who both want to pursue careers in STEM fields.
Freya said: “The idea of building a floating field seems really difficult at first,” Matilda adding “but if you work as a team it can be done.”