Gold Youth STEMM

As part of the STEMM Gold Award, I have interviewed my local pharmacist, David Standerwick, for an article. David has been a pharmacist for around 15 years, and also allowed me to do some work experience with him in the pharmacy, to learn what a pharmacist actually does first hand. Could you describe a regular day as a pharmacist? On a daily basis I meet lots of customers and patients. Each one has a different issue and trying to establish the nature of their problems and deciding on the most appropriate course of action is a bit of a detective story. Dispensing prescriptions is a routine job. It has to be to get a high quality of service. Some people can find this too routine and this is where the dedication comes in. When you were in high school, did you ever consider a career in a STEMM subject? I first became interested in pharmacy in the year before I left school. I has always been really into science subjects and had done well with these and so had looked around t

I’ve come to the end of my fourth and final week of my internship and I’ve really enjoyed my time working with innogy on the Galloper project. This week I learnt how to write a competitor analysis report. Also, the leaflet I created aimed at KS2 students, teaching them about Galloper and the offshore wind industry, went to a designer to be formatted so it’s ready to be printed!  This internship will really help set me aside from the crowd when it comes to applying for university and even with future employers. Since not only have I learnt a lot about offshore wind and all that goes with it, but I’ve also been able to appreciate all the other aspects that are involved in making a project on this scale a success. Also, that good communication skills are keys to any work environment especially if you want to work in an industry which requires vast amounts of teamwork. I am also very lucky to be going to the EEEGR awards in September as innogy have kindly offered me a place at

This week I went down to the Galloper turbine assembly base in Great Yarmouth with Rachel, where I met Peter who I site manager at the assembly base. He gave us a guided tour of the whole base explaining everything as we went. I learnt that the turbine blades are actually made of very thick fibre glass and weigh 26 tonnes each, they are made in sets of three and have to be within a certain weight percentage of each other or else the turbine won't balance. The turbine blades have large red dots on the so that birds flying by can see them and won't bump into the turbine. Each Blade is 75m long and they had 13 sets (39 blades) at the base when I visited. The tower of the turbine is made of 3 parts that each weigh up to 200 tonnes. The top section has what looks like rope spirally wrapped around it, this reduces the pressure of the wind in one area of the tower and creates a vortex around the tower. It takes roughly half an hour to climb up the tower as it is 90m high!  The head

This is Andy Mee and I at the Galloper base. I’m half way through my internship now and I have already met so many fascinating people! Last week Rebecca, who works for innogy, came all the way down from Swindon (In the storm!) to meet me. Her, Rachel, who works at TMS-Media, and I went out for lunch at the Pub on the Prom and happened to be sitting right near Steph and Dom from goggle box! Later that week I went with Rachel to meet David from EPIC, who supply’s professional and skilled workers to both offshore and onshore, oil & gas and renewable energy companies. He also had the most adorable 3-legged dog! This week I’ve been doing a lot of research into and developing a leaflet aimed at primary school children, in the hope that they learn about Galloper in a fun, interesting and engaging way. A few interesting facts I've learnt are that at maximum blade height a Galloper turbine is 108.5m tall which makes it longer than a full-sized football pitch and taller than

I’ve almost finished my first week of my east coast internship for Innogy, hosted by TMS media. So far, I’ve started by picking the work streams that most interests me. I decided I’d like to focus mainly on educating KS2 and KS3 students on the Galloper project. The Galloper project is a new wind farm being constructed 27km off of the Norfolk coastline, it consists of 56 wind turbines, 10 have been erected and the 11 th one is now under way, the construction is set to be completed by March 2018. I’m currently developing ideas of how to engage the students and deciding what would be the best way to involve them in Galloper. Right now, I am thinking of a type of game that could be created that would teach them in an enjoyable way, we also want to help inspire children of all ages to peruse careers in STEMM. Not only do I get the opportunity to get involved in these work streams but also, I’m getting the chance to travel around the local area, meeting other people involved in the oi

After completing my Bronze Youth STEMM Award last summer I was keen to explore the world of science.  Since starting college in September my eyes have been opened to new scientific phenomena.  I have really enjoyed all the experiments that I have been given the opportunity to undertake at college, from titrations in chemistry, to measuring the value of g in physics.  However, one of my favourite experiments was using the microscopes to identify mitosis in an Allium root tip in biology. This may seem boring to you but in actual fact, when you look through a microscope, there is a whole world to discover.  Mitosis particularly grabbed my attention because it’s astonishing to think that this process is happening in our bodies at this very moment. I thoroughly enjoyed this task as I have loved using microscopes from a young age.  In 2015 I was even lucky enough to get selected to be a part of Year 10 Science Camp at the John Innes Centre.  During this experience I got to use a C

Yesterday was the day of the Eastern Big Bang Fair. We left college at 8.15 for our 2-hour journey to Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford. Unfortunately, Kate couldn't make it as she was busy looking around Plymouth University. The first stand we visited was the Royal Society of Chemistry, where we were shown how sun cream works and was able to observe the importance of it. Opposite that was the Youth STEMM Award table, where the wonderful Sam and Simon Fox were talking to prospective STEMM Award students. From there, we made our way downstairs to GlaxoSmithKline, where we met the extraordinary scientists behind a revolutionary medicine to be used in poverty stricken countries, and who kindly allowed us to take a photo of them with the new medicine. It is a gel that is used to clean the umbilical cord of a newborn baby after it has been cut; often, mud and animal manure would be used to wipe it 'clean', however, this would be likely to give the baby harmful disea