Soroptimist STEM Challenge 2022

Encouraging female involvement in STEM

In the Christmas Term, we decided to enter the Bournemouth Soroptimist STEM Challenge. The challenge was to create something that could be used to help people in LECs improve their daily lives. We wanted ours to be environmentally friendly, cheap, efficient, however also create jobs and economic progress in areas where it is needed most.

We created a system that would automatically water plants that had been planted for reforestation in the rainforests. Our system was solar powered, therefore sustainable, and had different methods for

St Dunstan’s College, Catford, south London, is passionate about creating a sustainable future.

The College’s Environmental Policy focuses on three overarching strategies: 1. To reduce the negative impact that our estates and facilities have on the environment. 2. To significantly reduce our carbon footprint, as part of our journey to becoming carbon neutral. 3. To educate ourselves and others on sustainability through effective collaboration, communication, and curriculum content.

This year, St Dunstan’s extensive planting programme has come into action, which included a number of ‘pollutant capturing’ trees that have been planted alongside the South Circular perimeter and a number of wild-flower areas including outside the Wellness Centre – St Dunstan’s dedicated hub of student wellbeing.

The estates team have also left ‘wild’ sections of the College grounds to grow and attract biodiversity, wherever they can. The team also created a new and improved cycle park, in a secure area at the front of the College, to encourage families to leave their cars at home, wherever possible. The College also marked the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with the planting of more than 70 trees across the school’s two sites. The Sustainability Committee, a group of students, staff and parents, continued to focus on air quality improving projects and time spent travelling to and from school. Opening up pedestrian access routes on the east and west sides of the College site have been scheduled into the school’s programme of works, starting with access via a new entrance located closer to transport links to the College site.

Most recently, the College also marked Sustainability Week. Throughout the week students took part in an exciting programme of events, ranging from student led assemblies, to pop-up sustainable food taster bars. The College invited external speakers into College to discuss the impact our diet has on our carbon footprint. Students learnt about a range of sustainable future foods and held form-time activities, discussing why it is essential we get involved and why we should take action to influence others on their opinions about climate change.

watering plants based on sunlight, time, and how moist the soil was. It would need people to help run it, which filled our criteria for creating jobs.

We then had to present our project to a team of judges and parents. We spent the night talking to the judges about our project, and we also had a tour of Bournemouth University. At the end of the night, we were thrilled to find out we had won!

This project really helped us to realize how important it is to have female representation in areas such as STEM, and how important STEM is to our everyday lives. We really enjoyed meeting the leaders of the female STEM field, and it definitely inspired us to continue to pursue our passions in STEM.

To anyone wanting to get involved in projects such as this, we would highly encourage them. It taught us not only skills in STEM and public speaking, but also how to work in a team, how to problem-solve, and most importantly, we really enjoyed it!

ZOE AND CLEMENTINE, students at Canford School

www.canford.com

Creating a Green School

St Dunstan’s College looks to a sustainable future

www.stdunstans.org.uk