Final STEM Fluency Lab
Snow and singing - must be the STEM Fluency Lab!
The final STEM Fluency Lab has just taken place, and what a great Lab it was! Barnsdale Hall Hotel was the new venue for the Lab, following Whitwell’s unfortunate closure. This year we had 18 teachers from across the East Midlands, six creative practitioners, and we were also joined by two American colleagues, who have been visiting the work Ignition* does, including visiting Lab 13s, and learning more about Come Alive with Science. We threw the unsuspecting teachers in at the deep end, with a singing workshop on Friday night, after learning about educational eureka moments. After some terrified faces, and initial resistance to group singing, the Lab participants really got stuck in, and it was a great first night! We were all greeted with a thick covering of snow on Saturday morning, which certainly fuelled excitement to do some work outside. Creative activities filled the day on Saturday, which included creating delicate paper houses, a theatre activity investigating imagination and evolution, a talk on nano-technology, and finally a raft building exercise, based upon Thai traditions, where willow rafts, holding orchid stems, incense and candles are floated down a river. Rutland Water was our river, and the term ‘floating’ should be used loosely, but it was a lovely experience. Sunday began with a great animation workshop, and after a silent walk in the snow (as well as a silent snowball fight!), the participants decided on key themes they wanted to explore, and grouped into project groups to work on these themes for the rest of the Lab. On Monday evening we were joined by some former Lab participants, and after a fantastic buffet, the karaoke began! More project work continued on Tuesday morning, and despite treacherous conditions, our visitors made it, and each group was given the opportunity to show their project to the rest of the participants and the Lab visitors. The Lab ended with each participant offering a minute of their own reflections on the Lab, and we all departed, to try and make our way home in the heavy snow!
