STEAM Exhibition ProjectCollected on the 14th of May 2019, ‘Enquiring Young Minds’ was an exhibition which explored students’ creative capacity as well as engaging their knowledge of science and how to conduct effective experiments. A team of judges from across the spectrum of both education and art gave their comments on the pieces, praising the collection as a field of curiosity and greatness. The project encouraged the students to explore the ‘what if?’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ in their creations, aiming to stimulate both imaginative and innovative ideas.

Participating groups

smARTies

Salisbury Home Education Group

Leehurst Swan School

Sarum Academy

Charlie: ‘What would happen if I put Skittles in Water?’

Abdullah: ‘How does a rollercoaster work?’

Henry: ‘Which plane will fly the furthest?

Harnham Infant School

Stratford-sub-Castle Primary School

Special mentions Charlie, Harnham Infant School

Abdullah, Harnham Infant School

Henry, Harnham Infant School

Stratford-sub Castle Primary School (Aerial Art, A celebration of Digital Media

In Charlie’s experiment, he decided to investigate how different temperatures of water affected the skittles and their distribution of colour.

The judges commented on how exciting it was to see ‘such an enquiring young mind’, which ‘perfectly summed up the concept of the exhibition’ in his merging of a scientific experiment and art.

Not only did Charlie include his methodology, hypothesis and the result, but also a graph detailing the effects of the water at different temperatures. A young scientist in the making!

In his piece, Abdullah furthered his fascination in the engineering of rollercoasters by engaging in his own project to create a scaled-down model: ‘the Ping Pong Rollercoaster’.

Despite the difficult task of keeping the structure together, Abdullah successfully created a route for the ping pong ball to follow, landing in the cup at the bottom.

The judges were impressed not only by how interactive the model was, but also by Abdullah’s ability to explain the different types of energy involved (potential, kinetic, gravity).

Stratford- sub Castle Primary School: ‘Aerial Art; A Celebration of Digital Media’

In his project, Henry used three different variables to investigate how certain materials affected the flight distance of his aeroplanes.

Showing his knowledge of successful experiment techniques, Henry flew all of his planes in the same weather conditions. He then measured the distance each flew and recorded this in a table, showing his ‘precise and accurate’ attention to detail.

The judges also commented on Henry’s eye-catching and unique presentation, in which he displayed his findings by creating a mini airport.

The judges commented on the ‘really exciting use of new media in a creative way’, which the Robin Class of Stratford-sub used. They created ‘beautiful collages produced in the styles of the artists’ researched’.As a class, their topic was ‘Secrets of the Sky’, and for their project they focused on the work of London based artist Tommy Clarke, and the photographs taken from a drone by Jamie Watson.