CSES attends annual Braintree Careers Fair
On Wednesday 24 September 2025, Roger Pittock and Ed Bye spent the day at Chelmsford City Racecourse, flying the CSES banner at the annual Braintree Careers Fair.
Over 1,500 year 11 (aged 15 – 16) students from 8 schools attended, two schools at a time to a strict timetable. The large marquee was divided into two sections, each serving in excess of 50 manned stands from a wide range of industries and further education establishments. School groups of around 190 students spent 30 minutes in each section.
It was a very busy day, Roger and Ed engaged with numerous students. Quite frequently they each had small groups of 4 – 6 students and were able to explain the role and diversity of engineering as well as aspects of science in everyday life and future careers choices.
There was a wide range of literature available for students to take away and study at their leisure. To demonstrate some aspects of engineering and technology, on display, on the stand was a line following robotic car showing the principles of driverless vehicles. A robotic “comfort cat”, that meows, purrs and makes movements when stroked, used with dementia patients and with others to reduce anxiety.
Also on the stand was a box of “electronic poo”. Many were curious as to what was inside and enabled conversation to be had about toxicity of batteries, safe and correct disposal as well as recycling. It was very encouraging that many of the student were aware of need to recycle batteries and also that their local supermarket(s) had special places for batteries.
Lastly, there was an electrolytic “urine” (simulated) battery powering a 5mm LED as an example of electrochemistry converting chemicals in urine to electricity. This simple multi-cell wet battery demonstrated the possibility of making good use of the 100 Million litres of human pee passed each day in the UK. The university of West of England (Bristol) trialled a larger system at Glastonbury a few years ago.
