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As part of Sciencesoft’s ongoing commitment to supporting education projects, we’ve mentored a team from Bishopbriggs Academy (near Glasgow) in the Go4Set education project – and the team’s been so successful the pupils are set to compete in the national finals of the competiton.

This project is aimed at guiding pupils towards a greater knowledge of how science, technology, engineering and maths can the applied in a real-life situation.

This year our colleague Sam Murdoch, one of our software development engineers, mentored the Bishopbriggs Academy team – and they won the “Best Overall Project Award” in the West of Scotland heat.

They will now compete in the national finals later this year when they’re held at the Scottish Parliament building.

Sciencesoft's Sam Murdoch (back row, left) with the winning team members

Here Sam outlines the school’s winning project and how Sciencesoft’s involvement assisted the pupils.

He said: “Every year the project is given a different theme- this year it was ‘Water and your school’ and the main idea was to identify a solution for the school which would lead to reduced and/or more efficient water usage.

“The pupils would take on specific roles in the team and at the end of the project were asked to produce the following:
· A project model: The team had researched and bought some ‘Hippos’ and used these as the basis of their model, plan and project.
· A display: Each team was given a stand at the presentation day for posters/information etc.
· A written report: Details of the team, planning, everything that happened in the project (including visits etc.), solutions and evaluations and so on.
· A presentation: The team presented to judges at the assessment day and took questions regarding the project

“As part of the project, there were two visits involved – I visited their school before Christmas to check on progress, hear the ideas they were coming up with and give some feedback and tips based on my project experience and report writing skills, for example. The main idea behind the project is to get pupils involved with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics career pathways so I tried to relate some of the things they were doing to things we might do similarly at university or work, etc.
The pupils and teacher came to the Sciencesoft offices for an afternoon. I took them around our various departments, gave them a presentation (and lunch!) outlining what we do and what my role was to try and let them see an industrial environment in action. It also allowed them to add more information to the report having seen a real workplace and how their ideas might apply to other environments.

“In terms of the time commitment, on my part throughout most of the project it was a couple of hours a week and that mainly consisted of keeping in constant contact with the teacher, relaying ideas and checking progress. Sciencesoft offered to help with costs towards any equipment the team may need for the project. The launch and assessment day were held at the University of West of Scotland in Paisley, and the final will be held on May 16 in Edinburgh.”

* As well as the pupils’ award success, colleague Sam has earned recognition for his input.
As part of the project he has become a ‘STEM Ambassador’ (STEM being Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)

This is a group of thousands of people who have knowledge in various areas relating to those above and help out at events like Go4SET, provide talks, assist in lessons and support the participating pupils.
Congratulations to Sam!

March 20, 2014