Winning category:
STEM Educational Programme of the Year (Public Sector)
Brief description of business:
Founded by science teacher, Lisa Davis, ExperiMENTAL Science was born out of a desire to raise the profile and engage more children in science inspiring them to become scientists in the future.
The business aims to ignite passion and curiosity in science for children and young people through hands on activities and experiments.
Since taking the programme full time in 2022 after leaving her teaching job, Lisa has run STEM days and workshops in 25 primary schools and over 40 other venues, engaging thousands of children.
Why they deserved to win their category:
ExperiMENTAL Science stands apart from other STEM outreach organisations as Lisa possesses the knowledge and combined expertise in science and teaching that allows her to anticipate challenges, create bespoke educational programmes and communicate effectively with children of all ages.
Having been a high school teacher for over 10 years teaching biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, ecology, geology and maths Lisa understands the inner workings of a school and is ideally placed to support the teaching of science in primary schools and to engage the children and spark their curiosity.
The main challenges that primary schools face in implementing science in their classrooms, is lack of equipment, which is often very expensive and the need for primary teachers to upskill their scientific knowledge and improve their confidence in running science experiments.
ExperiMENTALScience workshops address all of these challenges. Lisa takes care of risk assessments, provides teaching aids and helps adhere to the new science curriculum for Wales.
How does the individual, business or organisation further the STEM sector in Wales:
Lisa engages children in hands-on science activities, providing all equipment needed and supporting teachers by engaging them in the lessons so that they can experience for themselves how science experiments should be run safely in their classrooms. Every aspect of ExperiMENTAL Science is designed to raise STEM engagement and to spark interest in STEM subjects in Wales.
Lisa has also embraced the ‘edutainment’ side of STEM and has coordinated:
- After school STEM clubs
- Enrichment workshops and STEM days in primary schools
- STEM holiday clubs and youth groups
- Fun science birthday parties
- STEM engagement workshops at festivals
- Live science shows
- Pre-school science sessions
- DIY science kits
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