Christ Church engaged with over 200 key stage 3 students at the recent GEEK Lab event at Dreamland, Margate.

The GEEK Lab sessions, supported by STEM Hub and the Christ Church Outreach Team, took place over 2 days and provided an exclusive opportunity where secondary school students were able to have hands on experience with STEM related activities. Engineering was at the heart of the activities which included 3D Printing, BBC Microbits, Dynokars and Arduinos.

Jack Hanrahan, A member of our Outreach Team and also a current CCCU student, reflected on his time engaging with young learners during the second day at the event, and said,

“The Outreach Team and CCCU lecturer Heidi Colthup ran the workshops, whos aim was to chat to the children and give them an insight as to how TV series, films and video games are planned and brought to life, build a working rollercoaster with K’nex parts, discover the world of 3D printing, using the Outreach teams new Ultimaker 2 Go 3D printer, and to show them in a fun and engaging way what processes are involved in these industries.

Heidi talked to the students about what’s involved when creating and telling stories from various platforms such as film, TV, web series and video games. After the initial talk the children visited different stations around the site while learning different skills from myself and other members of the Outreach Team.

Overall the workshop was a tremendous success. All the children I worked with were focused with the task at hand, excited towards towards their learning and storytelling and inspired by 3D printing. The workshop was a great opportunity for the children to express their creativity, let their imaginations run wild and teach them about Engineering, Technology and Creativity in an engaging way. This was something I felt all young children should have an opportunity to take part in, I certainly would have at their age.“

The next workshop is taking place on 18 February as part of the full GEEK festival in Dreamland, Margate. The Outreach Team will be there all day to engage with more aspiring engineers, story writers, inventors, and technology enthusiasts.