In October, George Geer, Sensia’s Senior Project Measurement Engineer, and Project Engineer Brandon Antoine joined Years 3 and 4 at Somerhill School, Kent as Resident Experts at the prestigious independent school’s STEM Day.
 
The full programme of practical engineering challenges included designing and building the longest cardboard bridge and creating lollystick boats, propelled only by rubber bands. The annual STEM Day gets primary school children problem-solving against the clock – and having fun in the process.
 
The sixty children were divided into teams. George supported Year 3, who were tasked with creating a bridge entirely from cardboard. One stand-out design, a cantilever bridge with a balance weight, really impressed him. “The designer had even submitted a print of how it should work – and included a mechanical stop to strengthen it.”
 
Brandon worked alongside the Year 4 ‘Boat Teams’. The children came up with some ingenious inventions. “There were catamarans, water wheels and even mousetrap-shaped designs.. and only a couple sank on their maiden voyage!”
 
Kids see the world differently. They challenge conventional thinking and break boundaries without realising they’re doing so.
 
“Seeing 7-year-olds planning and working together as a team to achieve a common goal was fantastic” says George.  “We watched them make mistakes, then discuss how to change the design to avoid it next time.”
 
“George, and Brandon were fantastic ambassadors for the STEM field and really got stuck in with helping children on their activities, without doing everything for them.” 
Andrew Leach, Somerhill School Head of Engineering
 
At Sensia, we take our responsibility to inspire the next generation of scientific pioneers very seriously. We’re delighted to have been invited back to next year’s Somerhill STEM Day at Somerhill, as role models for tomorrow’s engineers who will one day be asking: ‘What if...?’, or ‘How can we…?