STEM youth club at The Academy

STEM youth club started in Summer 2022 following our in-schools STEM support through our Sphero project. Sphero is programmable robot technology where young people learn about coding, engineering, maths and science. It's been a great success and more and more young people were asking us where they could do more. So we set up the STEM club so that young people from different schools could come together and share their passion for STEM. We run the club through our youth work department, building a bridge of trust with participants and creating a safe space that welcomes and supports everyone.

'Overall we are noticing that XXX's whole attitude to all aspects of his life are improving, he is not scared to take on new challenges and he is learning that making a mistake in something is not failure but another opportunity to learn. We are so grateful to the whole team at STEM.’

We've been reviewing, learning and developing as we go - our young people are full of great ideas and feedback. This term we're choosing weekly themes linked to  worldwide events. So far, we've had National Wordsearch Day, Burns Day and National Lego Day. We get to research on each theme and come up with activities and challenges for STEM club. This has proved to be a massive hit for all of us!

We have also been delighted to invite some special guests to the STEM Club. Earlier this month we had Luci and James from Tinderbox visit us and deliver a super cool workshop on Game Creation. The young people had to create characters, settings and form objectives in order to create a successful online game. There was lots of excitement throughout the workshop and we can’t wait to see the finished game over the next few weeks.

As the club has expanded, so has our team. Summer has joined us as part of the North Edinburgh Youth Work Academy trainee programme we’ve also had volunteer Lucy join us to gain experience of STEM in a Youth Work setting. We’ve loved having some new faces helping out at the club - thank you!

Looking forward into Spring, we are planning on having more opportunities at STEM club, including taking the club outdoors. If you would like any more information or want to take part in the club please do contact us at info@spartanscfa.com