Day one of Easter STEM Camp took place today, with fifty-two Year 4 and 5 children from all over Cornwall joining us for three days of exciting STEM-themed activities.
Children used their imagination to devise clever ‘portmanteau’ words; these words are a ‘mash-up’ of two other descriptive words. Inspired by the story of Frankenstein children designed their own monster and then described it using prose containing portmanteau words. The children wrote some fantastic descriptions.
“On a dreamal night in November, in a lispark, the cronster was born. It has drear ears, teeth as green as a grapple, arms as thick as a grick and lips as straight as a strake.”
The children also had their first taste of 3D design; using Tinkercad to create their own models to be 3D printed. The children were hugely creative with their designs- everything from rabbits wearing sunglasses to lorries with faces on their wheels!
The afternoon kicked off with a hunt for micrometeorites. These amazing fragments of rocks from outer space can be found in rainwater – if you know what to look for. The children filtered rainwater and then used high powered microscopes to identify real micrometeorites.
The second afternoon activity was an engineering challenge where the children had one hour to design, test and then build the strongest, lightest bridge possible. The bridges were then tested to destruction, with the winner being announced at the presentation afternoon on Wednesday.
The children had an amazing time and we are looking forward to the next two jam-packed days of activities.