Education

On Friday 29 June 2012, the Chelmsford Engineering Society held its annual school/college competition and exhibition in which various students from different schools brought in their projects to show to judges and other technology enthusiasts. Each school/project was given a stall, time to organise themselves, and encouraging smiles from others around, but with more than 60 projects in the competition, it was bound to be a long day.

The projects on display representing CCHS included the Year 8 Go4SET Eco-Classroom, the Engineering Education Scheme projects and A-Level Product Design projects from Megan Copnell and Rebecca Shelford. Throughout the day judges came and went, not just inspecting our projects but inspiring us through their incredible experience in technology and impressive careers.

At the end of the day, once the judging was complete, everyone was summoned to a lecture hall and the price giving ceremony began, along with a motivating talk straight after. The G04SET team achieved a Highly Commended and the EES team in the Systems and Control category came runners-up in their age group.  These two groups will attended the Prize Ceremony on Saturday 14 July. Many thanks again to the Chelmsford Engineering Society for being so inspirational to our young engineers.

Written by a student from Chelmsford County High School for Girls

By Bob Easby, Westcliff High School for Boys

I first attended a Faraday Challenge with a group of Year 8 students from Westcliff High School for Boys on a cold January day in 2012. I was initially impressed at how a school hall, full of 36 excited 13-year-olds suddenly fell silent when the Faraday presenters began describing the day's challenge. The mood hardly changed with all the teams working diligently in, what for 13-year-olds, seemed to be total silence for the whole day. The boys were so enthusiastic on the way back to Westcliff that I resolved to try to host the event the following year.

Find out more from the IET website

Faraday Challenge Days are one-day STEM activities developed by the IET for six teams of six students aged 12-13 years for secondary schools, and also available for self-delivery in primary schools. The challenge days take place over approximately a six month period at schools throughout the UK.

Read more: Should I host the IET Faraday Challenge at my school?

Should I Consider Engineering?

Find out more about what life in an engineering related career is like - and why you might like to work in an engineering company yourself.

Engineering. Sounds pretty dull doesn't it? That is until you start working in engineering. I am now a graduate in electronic engineering, and below I'll try to tell you how I managed to get a job that lets me work on some pretty awesome military equipment (don't ask I can't you...), travel round the world and get paid a good amount of money for it!

Read more: Graduate's View - Jack

I have been to two Engineering Our Future lectures hosted by CSES at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford. I feel that these have both been very worthwhile in informing the career path that I would like to choose due to the wide variety of topics covered by the courses. The presence of company exhibits allowed me to see what the companies actually do in a far more tangible way than through the abstract descriptions on their websites.

The lectures were both informative and interesting, highlighting the practical uses of the engineering that they use. The lecturers have all been very knowledgeable and have related to the audience well. To summarise, I would highly recommend these lectures for anyone who is looking to find out more about a career in Engineering.