All About STEM NEWS
Big Bang North West: Platinum Sponsor – Shaping Futures Zone REVEALED!
WOW! Our Platinum Sponsor Shaping Futures have an amazing line-up for their zone at The Big Bang North West 2018! Take a look below and discover their awesome, inspirational activities and exciting exhibits – it’s going to be so much fun!
“Shaping Futures (NCOP) are pleased to continue our successful sponsorship of Big Bang North West for 2018. As a partnership of 12 higher education providers (a mix of colleges and universities), we believe in inspiring the next generation to have a love of science and engineering through fun and interactive events. It is vital we inspire young people in this way, so we can then successfully provide guidance to them on how to access higher education and a future career as a STEM professional.” – John Corish, Head of Programme, Shaping Futures (NCOP)
Shaping Futures is part of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP), which is funded by the Office for Students and supported by the Department for Education.
Shaping Futures will also be generously sponsoring the North West STEM Club of the Year award at The Big Bang North West as part of the Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineering Competition. We will also be working together on numerous projects in the coming year, a huge thank you to them for their ongoing support!
The Shaping Futures Zone is going to be fantastic, countless educational partners collaborating to bring our attendees STEM-sational activities – so exciting!
The Shaping Futures Zone
Liverpool Hope University
External Relations & Computer Science – Liverpool Hope University has a vibrant Science Faculty featuring state of the art facilities and world leading tutors in Computer Science, Mathematics & Robotics, Health Sciences. Geography and Psychology.
Activities:
Problem-solving is the process of finding solutions to difficult/complex problems/issues. Algorithms is a process to be followed in problem solving. Whether the problem is simple/complex, we need to understand the problem, and come up with the sequence and the steps to solve the problem. This activity will help the participant to understand the problem and design the algorithm from scratch to move robotic buggies. Moreover, we will demonstrate how two mini robots (robotics Darwin-Mini) will play football by using a simple Android application. Everyone is welcome to join with us to play with robotic buggies and mini (football player) robots.
@LiverpoolHopeUK
Website: www.hope.ac.uk
Edge Hill University
Edge Hill, ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, is a campus university with a mission to create opportunity from knowledge.
Activities: Come and delve into the realm of 3D design and printing. Learn to code, design or scan an object that has never existed before – and then print out and take home. You’ll find out how 3D design and printing works and how it will affect all our lives in the very near future!
@EHUOutreach
Website: www.edgehill.ac.uk/biology/
LIPA
The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts is a Higher Education institution specialising in training for performing artists and those who make performance possible. This includes degree programmes in Sound Technology (working with sound) and Theatre and Performance Technology (including lighting design and working with live sound).
At LIPA, you can learn how to create the sound technology and lighting for music tours, television, film and computer games. You can learn how to design the set and costume for a theatre production, working with external companies to gain a huge amount and variety of experience.
Activities: Come and visit our interactive stand and try out our sound desk, have a go at lighting and find out more about what LIPA can offer you!
@LIPALiverpool
Website: www.lipa.ac.uk
Liverpool John Moores University – Shaping Futures with Absolute Chemistry
We are a Chemistry Outreach project working with 11 schools across the Liverpool City region. The Absolute Chemistry programme has been designed to promote achievement in Science by increasing pupils enthusiasm for Chemistry through exciting and engaging activities, events and resources.
Activities:
Moly for A lolly. Use MolyMods to build everyday chemicals such as Caffeine or fake tan and begin to learn basics of bonding. Build a diamond How does Diamond form? Use our special model kit to build a CARBON tetrahedral – then join them with others to make a HUGE model of diamond. Glo-stick magic How can we make Glo-sticks last longer? Come and investigate how we can change the rate of reaction using temperature.
@LJMU_CfA
Website: www.ljmu.chemistryforall.co.uk
LJMU – Geography – Liverpool John Moores University Outreach Team
Activities:
The Carbon Game! Come and discover more about one of the most important elements on earth. How it travels through the planets carbon cycle, why it is so important to all life on earth, and about its contribution to our biggest threat today: Climate Change!
@LJMUOutreach
Website: https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/
University Centre St Helens
University Centre St Helens offers students the opportunity to obtain a first class undergraduate education in a personalised learning environment. Our small but expanding, specialist provision allows our degree students to not only foster a sense of individuality but to reap the rewards of a concentrated teaching and learning experience.
Activities:
The science of slime and Polymer Chemistry. It oozes between your fingers when you pick it up, yet does not stick to your skin. At times it acts like a liquid, but at other times it appears to be a solid. It’s SLIME! Join us as we show you how to combine two materials, to create something completely new that is both a solid and a liquid.
@unicentresh
Website: www.sthelens.ac.uk/ucsh
Riverside College & Cronton Sixth Form College
We are a 16 – 18 College offering A level and vocational routes in a broad range of subjects including Engineering and Science.
Activities: Alongside general information our staff will provide hands on experiences .Virtual welding equipment that young people can use for a real hands on experience. We are also bringing 3D printers so young people will be able to see how they work and take away some products. Our staff will be able to answer questions and enthuse participants re STEM careers.
@riversidecoll @crontoncoll
Riverside College website
Cronton Sixth Form website
City of Liverpool College
Almost 20,000 students study at The City of Liverpool College every year. Over a third of all 16-18 year olds in The City of Liverpool choose to study with us.
Activities: At the exhibition, we will be able to offer a variety of activities across ICT, and Engineering to include facial recognition software, sensor suits, virtual reality headsets, 3D printers and digital twin demo’s amongst other hand-on activities. We may also be bringing our robot ‘Pepper’.
@COLcollege
Website: http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk/
University of Liverpool
Engineering 4 All
We develop and run hands-on activities promoting Engineering in schools and to the wider public. We also pioneer the use of 3D printing as an educational tool.
Modern civil engineering allows us to build skyscrapers capable of withstanding earthquakes above 8.5 on the Richter scale, thereby saving countless human lives.
Shaping Futures: Building Bridges School of Engineering
The University of Liverpool
Activities:
The Mersey Gateway Bridge opened last autumn to great fanfare and some protest. Come along and help us to build a 5 metre long, 1:200 scale model of the Mersey Gateway Bridge. You’ll be casting individual sections of the roadway (deck) in plaster of Paris whilst others build up the towers. The final challenge will be to suspend the roadway sections using one very long cable without getting yourselves in a tangle!
@livuniengg4all
Website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/engineering/
Wirral Met
Wirral Met College STEM Centre: State of the art provision for Robotics, Computing and Applied Science. Courses and Apprenticeships from Level 2 to Degrees.
Activities: A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate electric charge on a hollow metal globe on the top of an insulated column, creating very high electric potentials. It produces very high voltage direct current electricity at low current levels. It was invented by American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1929. The potential difference achieved by modern Van de Graaff generators can be as much as 5 megavolts. A table top version can produce on the order of 100,000 volts and can store enough energy to produce a visible spark.
@WirralMET
Website: www.wmc.ac.uk
Shaping Futures: Big Bang @ Sensor City
Shaping Futures: Big Bang @ Hope University
Shaping Futures: Big Bang @ LJMU
Shaping Futures: Celebrate Big Bang @ School with Farm Urban
BOOK NOW FOR THE BIG BANG NORTH WEST 2018!
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Photographer: Gareth Jon
