Henry Rae
University of St Andrews,
Fife, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.110.41

The STEM Inspiration awards are designed to celebrate individuals and organisations working to inspire young people in STEM subjects. Of the seven categories, I was honoured to receive the Outstanding STEM Technician award. This award recognises efforts to inform and inspire young people with apprenticeships and technician careers. It is aimed at those working in STEM who have a technical, non-graduate background and have used this to help inspire the next generation of technicians.

I especially like activities with Primary 5, 6 and 7s as I find they are always excited and interested in cool stuff and not afraid of taking part in whatever is going on. My aim is to entice them into science by giving them interesting, fun and educational activities. By the time they go to high school I won’t mind if they have forgotten the details of what they did as long as the feeling of ‘science is really interesting and fun’ stays with them and hopefully will lead to careers in science.

Although a lot of activities I do can stand alone as a kind of ‘wow! that’s cool’ activity, if I ask the children why this particular thing happens, it makes them think and try to understand what’s going on. This puts their brains in gear and gets their attention.

I have found that teachers have a lot to cram into their lessons and have to know a lot about a lot of wide and varying subjects. Having STEM activities delivered by external experts helps both staff and pupils understand the subject more deeply.

Being a part of STEM has made me look at what’s being done, and what’s needed. I have started my own Primary School Science Days, where I go to a school taking the schools of Biology, Physics, Medicine and Chemistry. All primary 5, 6 and 7s engage in fun, educational activities. Showing a wide choice of sciences means there is something for everyone.

In carrying out STEM activities I have delivered sessions to well over 1000 primary 5, 6 and 7s and I have been told many stories about the positive impact on the children. One was a student who keeps turning up to our science events and knows truly an amazing amount of anatomy and physiology for a nine-year-old. At a public Science Discovery Day I noticed a three-year-old looking at what we were doing. I handed him an Automated External Defibrillator and said ‘Want a shot?’ Without instruction he started the Defib, placed the pads in the right positions and shocked the manikin correctly. He didn’t say a word, just grinned from ear to ear the whole time.

A lot of the STEM activities I do in my own time. I enjoy doing them and from the feedback I get from teachers the children not only have a great time but they are absorbing the information too.