Pollution solutions from Year 9s - an epic STEM challenge
10th July 2024
The brilliant Year 9 students who took part in the STEM challenge. Image: Jonny Hughes
Last month we collaborated with Kate Pryse-Lloyd, CEO of STEM Workshops, to create a day-long STEM workshop for Year 9 students across four schools in Lambeth and Southwark in London.
Imagine a Dragon’s Den where the hopeful pitchers are 14-year-old students, with a panel made up of their headteachers. That’s exactly what happened when the students were given the opportunity to pitch their air pollution solutions!
Presenting solutions to air pollution
The workshop, devised by Kate, involved the students building and coding their own air pollution monitors, collecting and analysing the data from them, and then creating policy based on the data, culminating in a presentation to their heads and the head of governors.
The panel was made up of headteachers and Mums for Lungs’ founder Jemima Hartshorn. Image: Jonny Hughes
“It was quite scary, pitching to our head teachers, but also a really good experience”
The science of air and air pollution
Dr Ian Mudway presented on air pollution
The event began with a presentation from Dr Ian Mudway, senior lecturer at Imperial College London, who explained that air is not an infinite resource.
In fact, there is less breathable air than water on the planet, but its lack of visibility means that people find that difficult to understand.
Monitoring and analysing air pollution data
Once fully briefed, the pupils took on the roles of coder, engineer, data analyst, project manager and policy advisor and were given a masterclass in their role by an expert in their field.
Kate Pryse-Lloyd helped the coders to programme the monitors, while Simone Steel, a Fellow of the BCS - The Chartered Institute of IT, helped the data analysts understand the numbers and what they meant in real terms.
Marcel Belingue, a public policy specialist, introduced the children to policy-making and commented on how impressed he was with the level of interest from the students, and even more so by the recommendations they came up with!
Students taking part in the workshop. Images: Jonny Hughes
Policy solutions to tackle air pollution
A Year 9 student holding up some ideas to tackle air pollution
Policy solutions the students came up with included:
✴️ Planting shrubs along the kerbside to capture air pollution from car exhausts and tyre dust,
✴️ Moving park benches from the edges of parks/playgrounds to further inside, away from roads,
✴️ Moving playgrounds away from busy junctions,
✴️ Introducing tolls outside schools on main roads.
Advocating for STEM education and careers
Kate Pryse-Lloyd, who devised the workshop, noted the aim of reflecting the demographics of our population in the STEM workforce and was keen to ensure the hands-on experience the students experienced in this workshop will prepare them for future STEM careers.
Kate Pryse-Lloyd with Year 9 students whilst monitoring air pollution. Image: Jonny Hughes
“It was fantastic to see young people from a number of schools talking about the important topic of air pollution. I really enjoyed the presentations as the young people of South London came up with a series of innovative ideas to make it better.”
Mums for Lungs would like to thank all the schools and teachers involved for taking part, Charter School East Dulwich for hosting the event in their megalab and especially Kate for her amazing work planning and coordinating the workshop. Kate's mission is to increase opportunities for all young people to pursue careers in STEM, and her company STEM Workshops specialises in securing funding to provide free STEM events for schools.
Please get in touch with us if you’d like to organise a similar workshop at your school.
Images: Jonny Hughes / Mums for Lungs