TEV goes back to school

When Mauchline Primary School asked us to kick off their STEM week with an assembly on TEV (for my US friends: Primary School = Elementary School), I was honoured. Talking to over 200 kids between 5-11 about the cool stuff we get up to sounded awesome! Um, and daunting.

Read coverage in the Cumnock Chronicle on the TEV assembly at Mauchline Primary here

I’m used to presenting to an adult audience, so a few worries went through my head when I was preparing. Will I be able to keep their attention? Will they have any idea what I’m on about? Will I fail so spectacularly that my kids will never live down my infamy in our school district?

Personally I learned a whole lot in doing it. I had to work hard to keep the presentation engaging.

(Also I totally wish I could start and finish every presentation to adults with “Everything is Awesome” theme song from the Lego movie.)

I was excited to share TEV with children, not just because I dig TEV but because I really want to stand up for STEM education. My STEM exposure at home was a given, what with an engineer dad, biologist mother, and big brothers into architecture and computer programming. But many children don’t have access to these subjects outside of school. In particular, many girls still think STEM subjects are off limits.

Children should know that STEM subjects are cool, fun and for everyone.

At Mauchline Primary it turned out the kids had a real appetite for looking into the future of transportation. After all, they might be using  TEV style of transport when they grow up. They were a very attentive audience and were great participants when we did experiments, like one on air resistance. In short: I’m certain there were plenty of future science, technology, engineering and maths stars in that room!

 

Caroline