Inspiring Minds with Canterbury Christ Church University
16 Apr 2019
Christ Church was delighted to host Inspiring Minds and Engineering Summer Schools – two exciting outreach programmes designed to ignite an interest in STEM subjects among secondary school children.
The Inspiring Minds programme consisted of Saturday workshops and sessions at the Canterbury Campus, with the aim of empowering school children to make informed decisions about their education and employment trajectories while providing spaces where they can share their ideas and have their voices heard.
All sessions had direct real-world links back to the curriculum and give students the opportunity to design and create solutions to genuine questions that touch on the nature of human uniqueness and, link to their interests.
The students’ solutions to these problems were displayed at Inspire to Enquire, a final showcase exhibition in in the summer. As part of the initiative, students also had the opportunity to complete a prestigious CREST Award – a British Science Association scheme for STEM project work that inspires young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers.
To coincide with the Government’s Year of Engineering and the university’s exciting plans for curriculum expansion in science, engineering and technology, Christ Church also partnered with the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) Project to deliver innovative education and engagement activities at two residential summer schools on the Canterbury campus.
The pupils learned about the underlying engineering principles behind Bloodhound, including the drag, thrust, aerodynamics and friction of this supersonic car before going on to design, build and race their own model rocket cars with the expertise and assistance of the Bloodhound team.
Both the summer schools and the Inspiring Minds project were funded by the Kent and Medway Collaborative Outreach Programme (KaMCOP), a group of higher education institutions (including Christ Church) and further education colleges who are working together to deliver targeted outreach across the region.