TeenTech Inspiration for Pupils

On the 20 November we took nine students to ACE Cobham International School so they could take part in this year’s TeenTech event where around 150 schools from the South East get to have a day of design and innovation. This is an opportunity to meet professionals and discuss their design ideas. The pupils get the opportunity to interact with new ideas, which helps to develop their own ideas. The pupils were given a mentor from industry to help guide them with a brain storming exercise in groups of two or three, they each developed a useful new design idea which was then presented to the group for evaluation of the designs. They then decided which idea to put forward and present to the other schools. After that the pupils had a look round the rest of the exhibits including Air Products, who have nothing to do with aeroplanes, but work with air and the gases therein. They are the world’s largest suppliers of hydrogen and helium. The two presenters were very engaging and the students had a lot of fun with them. Atkins were at the next stand we visited, where we had fun building a tower. Atkins are a multinational engineering, design, planning, architectural, project management and consulting company. Then we saw Thales a French multinational company that designs electrical systems for the likes of aerospace and defence. Here the students got to try their hand at controlling small drones and tiny robots.​

“I found the day very fulfilling and fun. It was very nice to see different companies and what they work with. My favourite things were the drone flying and liquid nitrogen experiment.” Leah P

“TeenTech is a wonderful event. At first I didn’t think I would like it but when it started it was very inspiring entertaining and interactive. I definitely would recommend this to any other girl. Technology is not always thought as to be a girly thing but I really enjoyed it. There were different stations as you went around and each one was super interactive so you basically did everything yourself and I learnt so much.”  Karlijn R

“I liked the building surveyor stall because they had a camera that shot a million lasers a second and spun around so they could take 360 degree pictures that were accurate enough so that they could measure the picture and it would be accurate to a millimetre in real life.” Leo K