Transition… done!
“The EngEd Farmvention Challenge created valuable links with professionals and companies within the STEM industry. Our students learnt new skills which will lay strong foundations for their future careers, and prepare them for the technologically-advanced world that they’ll soon be entering as employees.”
The EngEd Farmvention Challenge has been used flexibly by Tarporley High School who integrated them into a transition to high school programme of activities. The benefits align to their school mission to ensure that the pupils wholeheartedly enjoy their learning and achieve to their full potential by having opportunities to make links to real–life situations.
The school have always invested time in engineering STEM challenges, so when the opportunity arose to explore EngEd Farmvention Challenge, Mr Nieroda and his STEM team jumped at the chance to expand their offer to 11-12 year old pupils.
Tarporley High School is a mixed 11-18 school with 1,208 pupils, situated in a rural Cheshire community that extends between Chester and Nantwich. The STEM Department pride their approach to enrichment and seek out opportunities where their pupils can experience new and modern technologies and to prepare their students for a future that has not yet been invented.
The EngEd Farmvention Challenge enabled opportunities to compare engineering practices in an agricultural context, with their previous knowledge of motorsport engineering.
How did they do it?
An Open Evening for primary pupils and new parents was where the challenge was introduced. It became the transition project for the year, involving local National Farmers Union (NFU) farmers who arrived with spectacular tractors to park up in the school grounds.
The links with community were key, with one of the NFU representatives having previously attended Tarporley High. They were enthusiastic to broaden the pupils’ awareness of new technologies currently being used in agriculture and to talk about career opportunities available. Pupils started to discuss the issues and real-world challenges the farmers faced, and discussion led to them making connections to curriculum knowledge related to plant growth, sustainability and tech. Some began to question their own ideas about electric cars and tractors, leading to debates about what were the most sustainable choices with regard to limiting carbon emissions. Eating local, food miles and growing organically were all hot topics of discussion.
The challenge was introduced formally to pupils in a year-group assembly. It was optional and was planned for a two-month period with five two-hour sessions. Each session followed the activities designed within the Sustainable Farms pathway.
The cohort of 30 pupils was made up of 60% boys and 40% girls. Pupils explained their selection of this challenge grew from their interest in farming, engineering and environmental issues.
Would the school do it again?
This was intended to be a one-off engineering project yet the impact on pupils shown through their enthusiasm was so positive that the school has decided to repeat it again. EngEd Farmvention Challenge will form an integral part of the STEM offer working across the transition.
The team thank Tarporley staff for sharing their story of success with us.
“You know you’re doing something right when more pupils and their parents are crowding around a John Deere tractor rather than an iconic Aston Martin!”
Feeling inspired?
The challenge resources will always be accessible either on the website or as a downloadable. Keep in touch with the team on fascinate@manchester.ac.uk