After the massive successes of previous Holiday Clubs at Manchester Youth Zone, our Smart Futures project has added a little twist by including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) activities to the usual sports and arts young people enjoy while they’re here.
Over the 4 weeks of the Summer Holiday Club, Smart Futures and volunteers from a wide variety of professions and sectors are enlightening young people about STEM subjects – and having fun while they’re at it! Week 1 was a great success – read on to find out more!
Monday:
Assembling Cash Tills with JD Sports and The JD Foundation
The JD Foundation, one of our key supporters and hosts of the awesome JD Takeovers at Manchester Youth Zone, kicked off the Holiday Club by till training our young people. Everyone has seen tills when shopping, so volunteers from JD Sports walked our members through how they work.
Young people were then tasked with assembling their own tills, working together in teams to see who could assemble the tills fastest.
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Tuesday:
Crafting Oobleck with Manchester University
Things got a whole lot messier when Perps from The University of Manchester visited! Perps works with schools and youth groups to tell them about the exciting things you can do with household objects and how it links with chemical engineering – in this case mixing water and cornflour to make oobleck.
If you’ve never heard of oobleck, it’s a slime-like material which acts as a liquid when it is poured or mixed. However, if you apply pressure (for example, by hitting it or rolling into a ball) it acts like a solid and doesn’t splash around! Naturally, the oobleck got everywhere and took ages to clean up, but the session was so much fun it was worth the effort!
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Wednesday:
Snap Circuits with Engie
Nicki and Paul from Engie shared their knowledge of circuitry and electronics, with hundreds of activities and projects available for our young people. Members got the chance to physically wire circuits to create sirens, motors and more. Most of our young people had learnt about circuits in school, but this was an exciting opportunity for them to gain practical experience with making their own.
Engie will be returning a few more times over the course of the Holiday Club with more activities revolving around the utilities industry – make sure to keep an eye on our website and social media channels to find out more!
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Thursday:
Static Electricity & STEM Games with Smart Futures
To end the first week of Holiday Club, MYZ’s Smart Futures team took the lead with games from our newly acquired STEM Clubs toolkit (more exciting news about that coming in September…) so young people could learn about static electricity.
Much like tractor beams you’d find in Star Wars or Star Trek, it is possible to charge everyday objects like balloons or rulers by rubbing them against hair or fabric to attract other items, even if they’re not magnetic! If you’ve ever got a shock from a door handle or banister, static electricity is the reason behind it.
Coming Up:
We’re excited to welcome the following volunteers and companies to see how they will excite our members about STEM subjects in the following weeks!
Week 2: Lanes Group, 10 Computers, Engie, Careers Hub
Week 3: O2 Gurus, Russells Construction, Engie, Altimex
Week 4: Louise (STEM Ambassador), IntoUni, Engie, Russells Construction
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