On Monday 6th November, Southmead were very pleased to welcome presenters from specialist learning organisation Mark Greenop Associates, working in collaboration with BAe Systems, the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Navy, to deliver an engaging theatre roadshow to Yrs 5 & 6, celebrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects.

The fully funded, 50-minute performance inspired and engaged our pupils, with learning and activities around the theme of ‘From the depths of the oceans to outer space.’ The children examined the engineering challenges that are faced when travelling to the most inhospitable places in and around our planet and discovered some of the innovative solutions to these problems.

Taking on the roles of engineers and technicians in remote and challenging environments such as in submarines, on the surface of the moon, or Mars, the pupils tackled communication challenges, discovering how hard it can be to give instructions when you cannot see what is happening, and how difficult it can be to follow those instructions with unusual equipment! In one activity, Ayden had to create a satellite communication array on the surface of Mars … while wearing a spacesuit helmet and gloves!

The Yr5 children learned about the sequence of the eight planets in the solar system (a bit of a recap for the Yr6 children: they were amused to find the presenters using the same mnemonic we used in class, last year!). But all of the children were astounded to find out just how large our sun really is (the giant orange inflatable ball was almost as tall as our Hall), in comparison to the Earth (a marble).