Students from across South East England recently gathered at ACS International School Cobham for a TeenTech Festival.
The event, designed to offer engaging learning in science, technology and engineering, was attended by 300 pupils aged 12-13, from more than 30 schools.
TeenTech was co-founded in 2008 by Maggie Philbin, the former Tomorrow’s World television presenter.
“TeenTech is designed to help young teens and their teachers to see how science and technology cut across all areas of life,” she said of the charity.
“From interactive experiments to in-depth discussions with industry experts, events such as this are a powerful motivation for students entering a critical time of academic study, whether within the International Baccalaureate or GCSE curriculums.”
You may also like: “Technology will create superteachers, not replace them,” says founder of CENTURY Tech, Priya Lakhani
Philbin was in attendance to see students participate in a range of challenges designed to hone skills such as teamwork and problem-solving.
Tasks included coding a robot to break into a bank vault and designing a machine to automatically sort recycling.
Pupils also had the opportunity to ask questions of representatives from companies including BAE Systems, the Bank of England, Network Rail and JVCKenwood.
“We want to ensure our students feel ready to take on the challenges of the future,” said school head, Barnaby Sandow.
“Bringing together so many schools with leaders in industry, will help engage our young people in the possibilities of science and technology for the next generation.”
