Engineers of the future inspired by the Coachmakers

On a warm Wednesday in July, The Smallpeice Trust sponsored by the Coachmakers held a STEM day at Hampstead School attended by Liveryman Andrew Blatherwick on behalf of the Charity Committee and delivered by Glynn Marsh of The Smallpeice Trust.

Sixty-seven excited students from the school attended the day’s session with little prior knowledge of what they were going to undertake. Glynn Marsh from Smallpeice Trust, an electrical engineer in his previous life, ran an excellent day’s activities which captured the imagination of the students and inspired them with some amazing results.

The object of a STEM day is to capture their imagination at a young age and engage them in engineering tasks that are fun and educational to gain their interest in further studies and perhaps take up a career in engineering. This day certainly delivered. Whilst 67 young students are a real handful – the noise level at times was deafening – however, Glynn managed them well and by giving them team exercises that caught their imagination, he held their attention throughout the day. The start of the day was an introduction to Smallpeice and The Coachmakers followed by a talk about engineering, what it is, how it impacts everyone with examples from everyday life followed by the day’s activities showing the students how aircraft fly, wing configurations and their different benefits.

Task one, to get them started, each team had to build the highest tower they could manage with just sheets of A4 paper. The session was hilarious but certainly taught them about communications and teamwork, one team managed 87cm high with a construction of triangular folded paper towers.

Task two was to construct a plane using a paper straw as the fuselage and card for wings and tail. First, they had to draw their design using the earlier knowledge of wing design and weight distribution. Each team was challenged to develop three prototypes to test out in the school playground. The teams then tested their planes and learnt from the process, what worked and what did not, largely the latter!

The final exercise of the day was for the teams to create and build a powered plane out of balsa wood, a propeller, small engine and power pack. With their learning from the second task, the teams really got into this task, and some amazing examples were built as shown in this photo, before being flown with great enthusiasm.

Each student who attended was presented with a certificate, the school staff who attended the day also allocated stickers to many students who showed particular skills in communication, teamwork, learning and original thought.

Hampstead School has a mixed catchment as it is nearer Kilburn than Hampstead, not a privileged area, so we were pleased to help young people from all parts of the community. The school was grateful for the Coachmakers’ sponsorship, which made this excellent day possible and thanked us for our support. The Coachmakers sponsors STEM days at Hampstead School and Halley Academy, in conjunction with the Smallpeice Trust, which runs the activities.

Coachmakers can be very proud of our involvement in this initiative, which clearly had a big impact on the students at Hampstead. This type of activity, which engages students at a young age, helps to foster future engineers, some of whom may well go on to receive Coachmakers’ awards at a later stage of their education and become Coachmakers of the future.

With thanks to Glynn Marsh for his excellent work in delivering a thoroughly rewarding day and the staff at Hampstead School for hosting.