Colin and I had a captive, but highly excited, audience of over 200 children between the ages of 11 and 14yrs and the task was to excite them about STEAM in avaition.
(A quick photo of the first class before we begin the presentation)
(Photo of the second group engaged in the IET's Engineering Our World video)
Everyone was excited by the various engineered designes and ideas in aviation, as it demonstrated the benefit of each element of STEAM in developing an aviation industry and an aviation engineer for the next century.
The key focus was to link each discipline of STEAM to aviation, as well as ensuring that the students appreciated that health and safety is also a crictical component in the industry. This was highlighted by illustrating the use of engineered technology for key concepts as:
- Fly-by-wire
- Fly-by-optics
- Fly-by-wireless
- Cybersecurity
- Lightning protection
- Environmental protection
The students were given an introduction into new technology, E-fan by the Airbus Group, that is paving the way forward in the industry in an attempt to reduce noise and emissions pollution, via an electric fan.
The future of the industry was highlighted by an overview of the patent by Boeing, for nuclear powered aircraft.
The students were most excited about the videos of the Amazon Prime drone as well as the swarm of nano quadrotors drones that were able to manoeuvre around objects and change their pattern, without human interaction or commands. The excitement soon lead to fear when they realised the impact this may have in the future.
The most practical and enjoyable element was informing them that their paper airplanes could be easily transformed into a remote controlled airplane, from their own smartphones.
The students at the TTCAA camp proved to be highly intelligent and aware of key aviation fundamentals and we were proud to have had the opportunity to support the TTCAA initiative.
We awarded several IET items to students during the Q&A session.
(Colin Chase, YP Co-ordinator, awards students)
(Colin highlights the famous women who have contributed to engineering and technology, in the IET Women's Network women in engineering poster)
(Colin receives a token of appreciation)
The TTCAA provided us with brand recognition on their Facebook page.
