What’s a STEM Centre?
A STEM Centre is a place where we teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths but not like we’re at school. It’s a fun place to be where children can come along and learn about these 4 subjects. We could include A for Art as some of the models are very artistic and creative.
Why have a STEM Centre?
In schools today, especially primary schools the teachers concentrate on English and Maths most of the time. The fun aspects of the curriculum like Design Tech, Computing, Art and all the other subjects like Geography, History, Science etc are all confined to the least amount of time.
Some schools that I visit have computing lessons for an hour per week but the recommended amount in some places if four hours per week.
Children are at school for about thirty hours per week, and a typical day looks like this:-
Registration
English/Grammar/Spelling
Break Time
Maths/Science
Lunch Time
Geography/History/PE/Assembly/Computing etc.
Our STEM centre aims to promote the four subjects in a fun and exciting way.
What can you do at the STEM Centre?
Every day during term time the centre is open for schools to bring children to learn about Robotics and Coding and then after they leave us to go back to their school we open up our centre as an after school club.
After School Club sessions initially will include Robotics and LEGO® Building on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. From January we will be open every day from 330pm – 6 pm.
When the children arrive they will be allowed to have a snack and just chill before getting on with the various activities that are on. The children will be able to after an hour switch if they wish to the other activity so they have equal time between the two activities.
There will be a twenty-minute break where the children can play on the RC Racing track to see if they can become the fastest driver over 2 minutes.
At weekends there will be beginners and intermediate coding club where children can learn SCRATCH or Construct 2 and from January we will be offering Python as well for children to learn.
Other activities will include LEGO® building sessions throughout the day scheduled in two-hour slots. At these sessions, one parent can stay with their child for the cost of a pound but limited to 4 children per adult.
We will also be hosting birthday parties at our centre and we will provide all of the entertainment but you will have to initially provide, the food, and the children.
There will be other activities taking place as we get the centre fully operational.
What happens at the centre during the school holidays?
Last week on 21st October, we opened the doors to our first week of October Half Term Camp. The eight children that attended had such an amazing time from playing with LEGO® to building Robots to racing RC Cars and then play Robot Wars on our simple 8 foot by 4-foot arena.
Children from the age of 6 – 14 are welcome at our centre and there are lots of other activities that we plan in the future. Some of the activities are just being tried out, like learning to fly a micro drone under the watchful eye of Brian one of our more senior instructors.
Over the last week Murilo aged 10, built some amazing models out of LEGO®. We have over 10000 pieces of those nice coloured plastic bricks but we are adding to our collection all the time.
Before the end of the year, we hope to have over 100,000 pieces and by the middle of next year, we hope to have over a quarter of a million pieces. That’s a lot of LEGO to sort out into different coloured pots.
If you would like to book a place please visit https://e4kids.co.uk/camps/
or you can call us on 01727 638 955 and speak to one of our staff who will be happy to help you.