News

On Friday 18 March a group of Year 7 students from Dane Court attended The Big Bang event at Discovery Park in Sandwich. The Big Bang was a celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people. The show aimed to highlight how many rewarding and exciting opportunities there are in STEM related careers and further education.

Students participated in exciting STEM shows, including watching an explosive science show hosted by Prof Hal Sosabowski, interactive exhibits and stalls, and workshops run by local companies and organisations, many of whom are working on the development of new drugs and treatments at Discovery Park.
Those hosting exhibits and workshops included Pfizer, AlgaeCytes, Amey, BioProNet, EDF Energy, the University of Kent, the University of Greenwich, Canterbury Christ Church University, BAE Systems, Mylan, The Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The University of Kent, School of Physical Sciences hosted an interactive liquid nitrogen show ‘Cool Physics’ which gave information on extreme cold and living tissue, liquid to gas expansion and material properties at low temperatures. The students had plenty of opportunity to participate through hammering frozen bananas to having their ‘heads in the clouds’.

The Dane Court students enjoyed all the varied activities, which included medicine making – with balloons as replica molecules - and impressed representatives of biomedical organisations with their existing knowledge of how antibodies fight infection.

From challenges including entering the world of crime scene investigation, learning to see in the dark (while defeating the evil SPECTRA organisation) and an Easter related chromosome Guess Who there was plenty going on to reconsider pre-conceived ideas of STEM subjects and to experience the role STEM plays in the economy.