Parents and Pupils enjoy a STEAM Evening

On 28th February, Norfolk House held its annual parent and pupil event. This year, the theme was STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) and it was a fabulous night of children showcasing their learning.

Many congratulations to our Heads of Science, Hiro and Leonard, who did a brilliant job introducing the evening and explaining the importance of STEAM subjects for the future generation. As Leonard said, “If we are to prepare for jobs that don’t even exist yet, we must learn the skills to problem solve effectively.”

And problem solve we did! From colour sorting in the Infant Community, to bridge building in Year 1, to testing takeaway coffee cups in Form 4, parents and children alike worked their way through a slew of activities, all designed to promote questioning and reasoning skills as well as inspire a sense of fun.

Year 2 chose two different activities for the STEAM evening. Using prior knowledge from their Science Topic, Living things and their Habitats, Year 2 asked our visitors to imagine how a Polar Bear would have to adapt if he moved to a hot habitat, such as the Sahara Desert. Year 2’s second activity was building a Roman Road that would be the smoothest for tiny vehicles to travel on. The children experimented with a variety of resources such as pebbles, twigs and cardboard.

One Year 2 pupil said, “I am going to use cardboard for my road. If I use these rocks, the surface would be bumpy and my car would not be able to travel across easily.”

Form 3’s STEAM activity was a challenge requiring the skills of creativity and resilience. The task was to build a stool that could hold the most amount of books possible, using only sellotape and newspaper. The children supported their parents by asking their own questions that promoted their higher order thinking skills, for example:

• How long do you think the legs should be?
• Do the legs make it stable enough?
• Are you happy with your design?
• What strategy are you going to use?
• Is there anything you could improve?
• If you were to repeat the challenge what would you do differently?

There were some amazing designs and lots of healthy competitiveness from the parents, with some of their stools holding more than 54 books.

Click here for photographs of the evening.

Thank you to all the parents who attended the evening as well as the children who so expertly led their parents through the activities and the teachers who, as always, work tirelessly to ensure the children have the best and most exciting opportunities for learning.

Watch this space for more STEAM activities in the future.