UEL Science Club opens horizons for local school pupils

The University of East London (UEL) is celebrating a pioneering new science project that brings together local school pupils, university academics and industry experts.

Six teams of Year 10 pupils from Clapton Girls Academy and Sarah Bonnell School gathered at The Crystal, near the ExCeL Centre, to pitch their science project posters to a panel of academics from UEL. The judges then had the difficult task of picking a winning team from each school. 

“I was very impressed with the quality, skill, and depth of knowledge,” said Dr Mihaela Anca Ciupala, Senior Lecturer at UEL’s School of Architecture, Computing, and Engineering (ACE).

“The students really have open and inquisitive minds. They chose topics that are current, which is a good way of bringing science and society concerns together.”

The day was the culmination of a 10-week project called ‘Science Clubs with UEL’, which featured university visits, practical experiments and tuition from UEL postgraduate students acting as science ambassadors. 

Projects included looking at water-flow engineering, designing a water supply system for a town and conducting bioscience experiments about water contamination. 

The aim was to introduce school pupils to STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics) subjects and to encourage UEL students to share their passion for science with the next generation.

Katherine Wilks, a member of the winning Clapton Girls Academy team, said the experience had helped her to think more about doing a science subject at university.

“We chose climate change and engineering because we are young and this is a big issue, and it gives us room to explore the science side of it,” she explained.

“I never considered engineering before, so it has been a surprise, as well as winning the competition, which I was not expecting.”

Nusrat Begum, from the winning Sarah Bonnell team, said she was interested in forensic science and enjoyed learning about DNA extraction and working on their winning poster about bacteria and antibiotics.

“We have had the chance to learn outside of school and got to try experiments about bacteria and antibiotics” she said. 

“It makes me more excited about trying new things in the future.”

Tarik Tez, Siemens major projects and solutions manger, and British Airways engineer Ollie Schrembri were on hand to share their industry experiences and to discuss pathways to careers in science and engineering.  

The ‘Science Clubs with UEL’ project is run by the University’s Education and Community Partnerships team.

Each year they run a large number of events and projects, offering local students in primary and secondary schools the chance to experience life as a student at UEL.