Young Engineers Academy + CREST Award!

A hands-on Engineering class where young learners explore how things work, tackle real design problems and develop their own solutions, with the option of submitting their work towards achieving a Superstar CREST Award from The British Science Association, once 6 activities have been successfully completed. 

All the activities contain the concepts and stretch needed for a Superstar CREST Award, with two activities in the full 6-week block being directly linked to the ‘Bridge blunder’ and ‘There’s a hole in my bucket’ CREST challenges.

What will we work on?

Across the 3-week introductory sessions, learners will:

• Explore structures and how engineers make them stronger

• Be inspired by real life architecture, designs or structures using the principles being investigated

• Design, build and test their own solutions

• Investigate a simple machine

• Develop creative problem-solving skills and resilience

• Evaluate their designs and explain their engineering decisions

• Identify why designs fail and work out how to improve them

• Start working towards a CREST Superstar Award through accompanying home activities.

Across the full 6-week block, learners will:

• Explore structures and how engineers make them stronger

• Investigate forces, load and stability

• Be inspired by real life architecture, designs or structures using the principles being investigated

• Experiment with different materials and structural shape

• Develop creative problem-solving skills and resilience

• Evaluate their designs and explain their engineering decisions

• Identify why designs fail and work out how to improve them

• Learn to improve their designs, based on testing and evidence

• Complete sufficient work for a CREST Superstar Award through accompanying home activities.

What are the lessons like?

This is a small, live online class with a maximum of 10 learners. Each lesson centres around an engineering challenge. Learners explore the Science and Engineering behind a problem, consider possible solutions and then out their ideas into practice.

There isn’t always one ‘correct’ solution. Children are encouraged to experiment, compare approaches and discover why one design might perform differently from another.

The emphasis is on thinking like an engineer: ask questions develop an idea, make it, test it, learn from the result and then make it better.

CREST Superstar Award

(optional home activity)

Alongside the live lessons, learners are encouraged to have a go at challenges at home. These challenges have the depth and investigative elements required for them to qualify towards the CREST Superstar Award as CREST Superstar activities. Two challenges in the 6-week block, Bridge Blunder and There’s a Hole in my Bucket, are challenges taken directly from the Superstar award, with teaching structured around these activities and with additional ideas and resources available on the CREST website. All the at home activities complement the engineering explored during the sessions and give children the opportunity to take their learning further through their own investigation.

The CREST activities are completed outside the live lessons, and are optional, but supported by the tutor. We will provide families with the information they need to complete and record the activity at home.

What you’ll learn from this 3-week block:

Session 1: The Paper Challenge

How strong can ONE piece of paper be?

Start with an ordinary sheet of paper and investigate how folding, rolling and changing its shape can completely change its strength.

Learn about how NASA scientists use folding to design instruments for space, and shapes that are used in engineering structures for strength.

Learners predict, experiment and test different designs on screen and together, before tackling the challenge themselves at home.

Engineering ideas: Strength, shape, testing, fair comparisons and improving a design.

Optional home challenge: Using one sheet of paper or card to support as much weight as possible. Test it, change the design and see if you can beat your earlier attempts.

Session 2: Sheltering the Storm

Learners will feedback about their strength of paper challenge from last week before being introduced to their new challenge.

Can you shelter a teddy, or even yourself, from a storm?

Starting by looking at stability of bases and tripod designs, learners will explore how to create a shelter from rolled up paper for a teddy, or if feeling really brave, themselves!

Learners will predict, experiment and test different designs on screen together, before tackling the challenge themselves at home.

Engineering ideas: stability, planning, support, testing

Optional home challenge: Create a structure that a teddy or even a larger object can sit within and stay dry when water is sprinkled lightly on top.

Session 3: Pulleys and Winches

Learners will feedback about their shelters from last week before being introduced to their new challenge.

Can you make moving a load easier?

Learners will investigate how machines can make moving loads easier, by exploring pulleys and winches.

Learners will predict, experiment and test different pulleys on screen together, before being introduced to a challenge to tackle themselves at home.

Engineering ideas: testing, load, effort, machines, winches, pulleys, evaluating, improving

Optional home challenge: Create a winch that allows a bucket to be pulled up by turning a handle, like a bucket up a well.

Resources:

During the sessions, there will be opportunities for learner to try small activities alongside the teacher. Thus there are optional materials for if the learner wishes to participate in these directly.

After the sessions, challenges are set. The challenges are optional but build on the concepts studied and learners will have opportunities to feedback about how their challenges went at the next session. Resources needed for these challenges are also listed. Similar substitutions are welcomed.

A hands-on engineering class where young learners explore how things work, tackle real design problems and develop their own solutions, with the option of submitting their work towards achieving a Superstar CREST Award from The British Science Association.

🐝 A little note about our first block 🐝

As we’re launching later than planned, this first block is a shorter 3-week block. You’ll only pay for these three lessons, and our usual 6-week blocks will follow. We can’t wait to welcome you!