Boston & NYC STEM Experience

 

On a biannual basis 40 BCA students travel to Boston and New York to work with various STEM employers. The focus of this trip is

 

1.  Boston is home to the world’s best STEM universities, industries and developers

 

2. To inspire our students to increase their uptake of STEM qualifications at GCSE and beyond.

 

3. In conjunction with MIT, celebrate the launch of our own FabLab at BCA 

 

To encourage our students to progress into STEM careers, the school has decided to charge the students around 30% of what it will cost. The school heavily subsidises the trip and we are currently negotiating with some STEM industry sponsors to part fund the event. This will be an annual event and a highlight of STEM education in the NW.

 

‘Whilst in Boston we work with MiT through the Fablab Foundation and also with the Nerve centre – a robotics research strand of MiT.

 

 

 

The Broad Institute – a joint human genomics research facility between Harvard and MiT, The Boston aquarium and marine biologists. 

 

 

 

iRobot – engineers of domestic and military robotics

 

 

We are the STEM Experts!

 

Whilst in NYC we work with Central Park Rangers to look at biodiversity within the city park.

 

These organisations have agreed to work with us because they can see that by widening the horizon of opportunity for these students they are far more likely to make an informed choice of a STEM career later in their academic lives. 

 

 

We plan to track these students to see the impact that this event will have on their future choices. In addition we have applied to become part of a research project with the Wellcome Trust to investigate ‘ the link between non-formal STEM enrichment and progression to formal STEM qualifications’