Today, the most brilliant group of girls from Year 4 and 5 spent the day together bringing together a whole terms worth of tec learning! We all went to Porthtowan Eco Park, along with girls from all over Cornwall, to create our own model smart home and to gain an insight into some amazing jobs available in the STEM world.

Our day began with a talk about smart homes and ground source heat pumps – this was fascinating and gave us an idea of what could be included in real life smart homes. Not long after, we spent time, supported by a tec mentor, building our flat-pack model home using ikea instructions –  this was trickier than we anticipated. A few at a time, we also got the chance to work with tec experts to create the code for a sensor doorbell, a moisture sensor and an air-quality sensor.

Our second session of the morning was spent making a solar-powered car which was great fun. Our cars moved really quite quickly despite the cloudy weather conditions and we enjoyed racing against the other schools. We also spent some time exploring wind turbines and discussing their effectiveness.

Perhaps our favourite part of the day was in the afternoon where we got to bring out all of our innovative and creative skills to bring our smart home to life. Much time was spent building tables, chairs, showers and shower curtains (!!) and even selecting wallpaper for each room. We cannot wait to showcase our finished product both at Children’s Day in Truro on Saturday and then when our home gets returned to school next week.

It has been an absolute pleasure spending each Tuesday evening with this awesome group of girls – their innovative and creative minds have truly shone through and I cannot wait to see them leading the way in STEM careers in the future!