SATRO News 2019 - 2021
Please see below for the most recent updates within SATRO.
News, Updates, Vacancies and more...
Celebrating Science Week with our successful Problem Solving Final & SATROfest Event
SATRO has delivered two of its biggest events during the period of Science Week in March whilst continuing the delivery of in-school workshops. With over 600 young people inspired in STEM in celebration of science week by our wonderful STEM team.
Problem Solving Final - 16th March was the culmination of the 3 regional heats which saw 354 students in 59 teams compete in their relevant Key Stage to gain a place in the final. Each team has 6 students and they have 1.5 hours to complete a problem with the materials provided. Volunteers from STEM industries provide the judging on the day.
The Final Winners were:
- Key Stage 3: Rodborough (runners up: Heathside)
- Key Stage 4: ACS Cobham (runners up: More House)
- Key Stage 5: Godalming College (runners up: George Abbot)
SATROfest - 23rd March was the re-scheduled date for our annual STEM festival in which 235 students attended a full day of activities to inspire their interest in all things STEM. This included:
· Company Activities: to introduce them to the work they do and the careers available with Air Products, Atkins, BCS, Beard, CNOOC, COINS, KPMG, Let’s Learn Energy, NatureMetrics, National Physics Laboratory, Pfizer, Powercor, Royal Horticultural Society, Thames Water.
· SATRO Workshops: Air Products Hydrogen Cars, Pfizer’s Challenge, Tower Building and Space VR Headsets.
· Careers Challenge run by SATRO and supported by our STEM volunteers based on a humanitarian engineering project in Africa.
Students also had the opportunity to meet: careers representatives from HEON (Higher Education Outreach Network) and Farnborough College of Technology. With the opportunity to find out more about the SATRO Research Work Placement programme, see reports and presentations of work submitted in 2021 and meet some of the A-Level students who undertook research with companies.
Feedback from the day has been overwhelmingly positive:
- 62% met someone or took part in an activity at SATROfest that has changed their attitude to STEM careers;
- 75% felt that they had been introduced to STEM careers they didn’t know about;
- 64% are more interested in studying STEM after they leave school;
- 50% are more likely to take part in a STEM club or activity;
- 82% would like to have more STEM activities in school.
SATRO Impact Report 2021 - Updated: 08/03/2022
We are pleased to share with you our Academic Year 2020-21 Impact Report. A year in which the students we support continued to be affected by the ongoing pandemic but for whom we delivered in-school and virtually throughout.
Our thanks goes to all our supporters both funders and volunteers, to the organisations that partner with us to deliver learning, to the schools who welcome us into their classrooms but most of all to the students who are inspired to make our future better.
We hope you enjoy reading all about what the team at SATRO has achieved with your support. Please do get in contact with us if you would like to explore further opportunities to work together to benefit the next generation in our region.
If there are any issues accessing the report, please email Giorgia via the button below for a PDF version.
Energy Saving Challenge - Updated: 18/02/2022
Surrey-based STEM charity SATRO has partnered with Powercor for the 2022 SATRO Energy Saving Challenge an opportunity to put students at the heart of their school’s sustainability thinking and to see how they can reduce carbon emissions.
Click here to read the full article on Education Business.
Cyber Adventure - Demo - Updated: 09/12/2021
Click here for the latest demo of the Erasmus Cyber Adventure game!
Cyber Adventure Pilot Testing - Updated: 02/12/2021
We visited Riverbridge Primary School to test our ERASMUS Cyber Adventure pilot game with over 80 students who provided feedback for future development. In addition teachers and teaching assistants gave feedback on how the game could be used within their wider learning objectives to keep students aware of online risks.
The game has a series of Missions to be completed online in the form of games to increase understanding of issues such as online bullying, safety, privacy, reputation, self-image and relationships. Alongside which will be a toolkit of discussion topics and team games to re-enforce learning.
Feedback covered: graphics, instructions, game themes, knowledge of cyber issues etc. This will now be integrated with the feedback from the Portuguese, Spanish and Latvian schools also involved in the project.
Thank you to the students and staff at Riverbridge for their support and input.
Impact of the SATRO Research Work Placement Scheme
Following the success of our summer research work placement scheme with Year 12s we undertook an impact analysis with students.
We can now measure the success of the programme as follows:
- The number of students whose understanding of what the world of work is all about increased from 55% to 88%
- The number of students that expressed that they were very confident in their ability to engage with employers rose from 17% to 52%
- The number of students who had a very good understanding of what studying at Higher Education would be like increased from 59% to 84%
- The number of students whose understanding of the benefits of apprenticeships increased from 43% to 62%
Feedback from students on what they benefitted from:
"Learning different research, presentation and problem solving skills and understanding people's different approaches to the same issue/project"
"Discussing our projects with our supervisors before we started - not only did we talk about ideas and intentions for the projects but also about what they aim for as a company, and how our topics were important in the real world"
"It allowed me to get an insight into physical chemistry and the type of work research scientists do"
Feedback to students from our providers included:
" Her project was very original and she showed initiative and forward thinking by choosing to take her project in this direction."
" I am making a point to try to get your work shown to the Local Council as I think they will be very impressed."
"Her project was original and thought-provoking. She used real and current examples of how the industry is changing which shows she has carried out extensive research."
World Space Day - Guildford High Street
SATRO joined the Institute of Physics and other exhibitors on 9th October to celebrate World Space Week with a day of activities for young people on Guildford High Street. Our theme was a Mission to Mars. Activities on the day were:
- coding a robot vehicle on Mars to pick up an astronaut
- visualise Mars with our 3D headsets
- examine the types of rocks scientists are looking for
- take the Mars Quiz with our clikapad voting buttons
Thanks to the STEM team (Carl, Karen and Jane) who handed out over 150 certificates of participation.
2021 Research Work Placements
Congratulations to our 49 Research Work Placement programme students. They each participated in one of our 30 virtual summer research projects working with our 15 providers from different companies and research organisations.
Projects included:
- Are grey, blue and purple hydrogen colourful stepping stones to an entirely green hydrogen market?
- How can catalysts help improve our lives in the 21st century?
- Considering the perspectives of enforcers, businesses and the public do remote food inspections work?
- Radiation is often a very misunderstood branch of physics. Debunk four radiation myths that influence a person's perception of radiation.
- Design and test an ArcGIS Survey123 App to engage secondary school students with, and record, local wildlife as a step towards launching a citizen science program for this age group.
- Review and adapt Pfizer UK's Superbugs Schools Outreach Resources including to learn about viruses, pandemics and vaccinations.
- Constructing and Building Design Management: how are problems solved?
Examples of the research done include:
