An all girl team has once again won the Eurotherm by Schneider Electric 'Prize for Commercial Potential' at the Big Bang South East event.
The annual event held in Ardingly is the South of England’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people and aims to show students (primarily aged 7-19) the exciting and rewarding opportunities that exist for them via the right experience and qualifications.
The prize has been sponsored by Eurotherm by Schneider Electric for the last few years as part of the company’s commitment to increasing the number of young people entering the industry.
Application Marketing Engineer, Amber Watkin, who is also Eurotherm’s STEM co-ordinator stated: “A few years ago we noticed a decrease in the number of applicants for engineering roles and recognised the need to encourage more young people into engineering careers. We now have a team of around 15 STEM ambassadors who take part in local activities like science fairs, school projects and career events."
Bringing classroom learning to life
Guildford County School's all-female team won with their "Vitamins and minerals from recycled food" project which addressed poor vitamin diets by extracting vitamins from food waste.
To prove their concept, they created calcium tablets by sterilizing left over egg shells, drying them and mixing with other substances to create a Calcium powder. They then used a pill press to produce tablets. They did a similar method to make vitamin C tablets from orange peel. Their project then discussed the benefits of this process and how it could be refined further.
The competition was fierce with schools from all over the South East competing, but Guildford County pupils came out on top – with the Vitamin and mineral team winning a massive four awards.
Discovering new opportunities in the world
Schneider Electric strongly believes in the importance of a diverse STEM workforce, and understands that to increase the representation of women in STEM roles, we need to inspire and engage a new generation of talent via events like the Big Bang South East.
"What we need to do more is demonstrate the opportunities available for them in the workplace and encourage them to choose the subject as career. One of the ways we do this at Eurotherm is to offer one week work experience placements where they can have a go at hardware, software and mechanical design as well as learn about career paths and the qualifications they might need," says Amber Watkin.
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