BEP
The Barrow Engineering Project
The Barrow Engineering Project (BEP) was launched in April 2008 and is a major component of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s ongoing effort to encourage greater numbers of young people – and young people from a more diverse range of backgrounds – to become engineers and technicians.
Since its launch the BEP has worked with five secondary schools, two further education colleges, local businesses and other stakeholders in Barrow-in-Furness, to actively engage students with engineering.
Since June 2020, Sir John Fisher Foundation have kindly awarded Furness Education and Skills Partnership (FESP) a grant to enable delivery of the Barrow Engineering Project. Previously funding had been accessed through the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Since 2012 these grants have helped provide over 84,000 STEM engagement opportunities for students in the Barrow area.
aims & objectives
- To raise the overall profile of Engineering in the local area.
- To raise awareness of the valuable contribution of engineering to our society.
- To enrich the STEM attainment and skill levels of local learners within the project – both through the existing curriculum and extra-curricula activities.
- To motivate more local learners to take STEM-related studies at FE and HE
- To stem the outward flow of talented young people from the local area and, thereby, to increase the employment of local talent within the local engineering sector.
Our students have become very motivated to participate in STEM events. They have been exposed to a variety of Engineering centered experiences with different mentors and professionals. This has enabled them to see from these role models what an Engineer typically looks like and and what they do in the modern workplace. This has eradicated a gender biased stereotypical view and particularly encouraged girls into STEM activities. Our STEM clubs are now oversubscribed.
Activities funded by the BEP
STEM Clubs, continue to form the basis of the school activities and whilst some of clubs had their activities curtailed, co-ordinators have ensured that appropriate events have taken place whenever and wherever possible. Additional resources and equipment has been purchased to support their delivery, examples being:
- Full sized skeleton and body torso
- Ivydale Science Centre kits to build motor / band / wind powered vehicles
- Webcams for use with interactive whiteboards enabling conversations to take place with other classes (working in bubbles) and ‘Zoom’ calls to take place. They also supported the delivery of remote learning when the school was forced to close
- New resources to develop plant and gardening to be used in the Science curriculum and entry into ‘Cumbria in Bloom’
- 6 x Young Electricians Tool boxes to support the delivery of Electricity within the Science and Design Technology curriculum
- Continued development of resources for the Robotics STEM club enabling programming to take place. VEX 1Q super kit and 9 small robots 4tronix Robo Bit Mk 3 buggy for BBC microbit
- Purchase of a ‘done’ for use in after school STEM club
- Pewter casts and associated moulding equipment
- Student friendly text / revision materials plus Maths and DT PowerPoints, schemes of work and homework materials to aid GCSE students through home schooling
- 8 x Heart rate monitors to allow analysis of performance from the schools cycling team
- ‘Genie’ boards to aid understanding of programming and support progression from students involved in the ‘Lego League’
- Additional investment in plasma cutting accessories to be used with ‘A’ Level students
- To enable a whole school student cohort to study Science in the outdoor environment through visits to Waterpark Kennels
The funding has been invaluable as it has enabled Year 11 to access Solidworks from home during lockdown. This has meant that their coursework has progressed even though they could not access the school facilities.
BEP Participants
Primary Schools
- Barrow Island Community Primary School
- Burlington CE School
- Holy Family Catholic Primary School
- George Romney Junior School
- Low Furness CE Primary School
- Newbarns Primary School
- Pennington CE School
- South Walney Infant School
- St. Pius X Catholic Primary School
- Victoria Academy
Secondary & FE Schools
- Furness College (Rating Lane & Channelside Campus)
- Dowdales School
- Furness Academy
- Furness College
- St. Bernards Catholic High School
- Ulverston Victoria High School
- Walney School
- Chetwynde Schooll
The funding has allowed us to facilitate a host of activities and purchase new technology which has had a great impact with our students bringing a further awareness and enjoyment to STEM subjects. There has been a higher uptake of girls opting to continue GCSE to study Design Technology and statistics based subjects this year.
British Science Week (5th to 14th March 2021)
The BEP schools once again provided a great variety of activities and events for their students to become involved in, however as with Tomorrows Engineers Week some of the events took place outside of the designated timeframe but again it was communicated to the students that the activities were part of British science week and funded by the BEP.
George Romney Junior School organised a linked English / science and DT project based on the book ‘What will we build’? by Oliver Jeffers. The children worked in pairs to design their dream inventions / creations and ideas.
The whole school then entered the ‘Young Engineers’ 2021 competition with inventions and creations based on how to improve their world.
Year 6 children also entered the UlverSTEM design a poster competition and were delighted to have 2 entries selected as winners.
- Victoria Academy engaged facilitator Stephen pilling of Electro City and the children worked in teams to design a city scape, building structures using LEGO bricks and learned how to make an electrical circuit to light up their cities. The workshops were constructed to deliver a range of skills such as problem solving, teamwork, planning, imagination and construction as well as the cross curricular links to Science and DT. 48 Year 4 students took part in this activity.
- Barrow Island School requested that all their funding be combined in order to offer the whole school the opportunity to visit ‘water park Kennels’ to develop class based theory topics into practical outdoor experiments. The whole school were involved in visits to the Kennels commencing April 21.
- South Walney Junior School moved their British Science week activities to the summer term and a whole school approach to a STEM week enabled children to design, construct and test floatation devices. These were made by using propellers powered by rubber bands and single motors progressing to twin motors and switches.
- Pennington School used the ‘Our Diverse Planet’ theme to deliver practical activities for the children using BEP funding.
- St Bernards Catholic High School conducted live lessons (through a school closure) for Year 7 and 8 students to include designing a poster competition and an Engineering quiz relating to famous inventors and prizes awarded for the winning entries.
- Walney School Science department ran a series of competitions and activities with associated prizes to encourage students to provide solutions to some of our greatest environmental challenges that we as a society face today. The winning students ideas were subsequently entered into the British science Week Earthshot competition.
- Dowdales School also based its efforts into the earthshot competition around the themes of protecting and restoring nature, cleaning our air, reviving our oceans, building a waste free world and fixing our climate.
- Chetwynde School used programmable LEGO kits to simulate earth quakes and used this as part of a design challenge for Key stage 3 students.
- Furness Academy purchased a virtual experience for their trust cycle team, accessing the BKOOL app (a realistic simulator softwear programme) for members of the team to experience indoor cycle events like they were competing in a velodrome.
- Ulverston Victoria High School used a set of snap circuit kits purchased with BEP funding. Students loved the ability to quickly create a working project, identify and rectify mistakes. Students of all abilities gained a feeling of accomplishment and success in projects that they had assumed they would be unable to do!
The funding that Furness Academy has received over the years from the BEP has enabled the students to gain access to specialist equipment and experiences 9that in many cases would be inaccessible) due to budget constraints. The additional funding enables staff to develop their own subject interest and this in turn results in greater opportunities for our students to gain a keen interest and graeter understanding of the subjects which has ensured that many of our school leavers are encouraged to apply for either apprenticeships or college courses within STEM related subjects.
Tomorrows Engineers Week (2nd to 6th November 2020)
All schools were provided with funding to enable activities to take place throughout the week and a great number were undertaken….
Wherever possible the activities took place within the given dates but permission was given to move out of this timeframe due to school closures but when the events took place it was highlighted to the students that it was BEP funding for ‘Tomorrows Engineers Week’ that enabled the activities to take place.
Holy Family
Purchased a set of books that were used as a starting point for a DT / STEM based design and build project. This resource was used across all classes as the stimulus for the project.
Victoria Academy
Purchased a new ‘go cart’ (to replace an existing one suffering wear and tear) enabling the annual ‘Cartmania’ project to go ahead.
St Pius X School
Used their funding to support a whole school STEM day based around ‘Engineering Fairy tales’.
Pennington School
Had a focus for Key stage 2 on Light, Sound and Forces associated with Engineering and its impact on the planet.
Burlington
School
Saw the children embark on some truly wonderful exercises using virtual reality headsets. They have explored climbing the Alps which linked to a Geography project, learnt how to fly and control machines, experienced roller coasters. The ‘Oculus’ has been a fantastic purchase which has only been made available due to the funding provided.
George Romney Junior School
Acquired a large motorised Orrery (motorised model of the solar system that demonstrates the motion of the planets around the sun) enabling the students (and the staff) to better understand how the solar system works.
South Walney Junior School
Used the funding to allow Year 3 students to design build and test rockets, Year 4 an Electrics activity using ‘Bright Sparks’ equipment, Year 5 and 6 designed and built Roman Chariots driven by ‘Spheros’ programmed using the school ipads.
Dowdales
School
Produced resource boxes of SMART and Modern materials / products that had been used within the curriculum area and students were invited to name the product and its use with prizes being awarded to the winning entries.
Furness Academy
Initiated extra Key Stage 3 and 4 competitions run through social media platforms with an Engineering Club being delivered remotely via ‘Teams’ and prizes awarded accordingly.
St Bernard’s
Used the funding to provide an in house competition within Year 9 aimed at future design Engineers (and to promote DT and Engineering prior to option choices at GCSE). The competition was based around the theme of’ Green power transportation’. Students had to design a vehicle that used renewable energies. ‘Horizon Fuel Cell Car Kits’ were awarded to the three winning entries.
Walney School
Used the funding to support a whole school approach to Tomorrows Engineers Week, all students (in form time) watched Engineering / STEM based possible future career videos and then undertook a quiz sheet developed by DT staff. Prizes were awarded to the classes that delivered the most detailed responses to the questions.
The event created a great deal of enthusiasm (and competitive rivalry) not only among the students but from teachers as well!
Without funding from the BEP we would not have been able to complete many of our remote learning lessons. We have been able to collaborate in a way we could not have without the webcams.
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