Young Engineers and Science Clubs

SCDI’s Young Engineers and Science Clubs Scotland (YESC) programme supports the Scottish Government’s STEM Education and Training Strategy (November 2017) by engaging learners aged 3-18 and their teachers with a range of innovative STEM projects, developed with our industry partners including OPITO. Our interdisciplinary projects – accompanied by resource kits and teacher CPD courses – support teachers to tackle challenging STEM concepts through engaging activities; while supporting pupils to develop valuable skills and knowledge; to encourage uptake in STEM subjects and careers.

As a Lead Partner of the YESC programme, OPITO believes that the way to encourage the future leaders of the Energy industry and the next generation of engineers and scientists is to encourage young people to get involved in hands-on STEM activities that are engaging, entertaining and informative.

SCDI’s national Celebration of STEM event at the end of term brings teams together from across Scotland to showcase their work to industry experts and take part in a range of challenges to meet those working in the STEM sector to learn about the exciting career opportunities available. The 2018 Celebration of STEM took place at the Glasgow Science Centre in June and over 50 teams taking part.

Highlights of 2017-18 academic year include:

• Recruitment of 106 new schools to the network
• Ongoing support for the 1,500+ schools already in the network including ongoing advice and support to make use of resource kits, and direct them to other available resources and information about STEM activities and careers
• Developed and launched new projects to provide opportunities for schools to engage with topical STEM themes and challenge pupils. The annual STEM challenge (replacing the successful Construct a Crane challenge (2016-17)) ‘Don’t Waste a Drop’ in partnership with Anglian Water Business; challenged over 200 schools to design and construct a pump and pipeline to transport water while learning about water conservation
• A new offshore wind challenge ‘Knots to Watts’ with Vattenfall, The Crown Estate Scotland and Institute of Physics Scotland challenged 70 teams to learn about offshore wind then design and build a floating wind turbine
• Launched partnership with VEX Robotics with 40 schools receiving funded resource kits with accompanying teacher CPD courses in June (Aberdeen, Angus, Fort William and Glasgow) with regional events planned for November 2018
• Delivery of a comprehensive Scotland-wide programme of events including 4 Regional Celebration of STEM events in Aberdeen, Ayrshire, Dundee and Inverness, the national Celebration of STEM in June, and a series of teacher CPD courses delivered to complement professional learning programmes in each local authority.

Celebration of STEM - Friday 31st May 2019

OPITO continue to support and sponsor SCDI's annual Celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and took part once again this year to assist in judging the various challenges that were set to the pupils. More than 300 young people representing over 50 schools from all over Scotland and as far afield as Peebles and the Western Isles gathered at the Science Centre to take part in the event. Read more: https://www.scdi.org.uk/news-i...

You can find out more information about our work with YESC on their website or email communications@opito.com.