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We talk to Hannah Osueke of King Edward Primary School in North Shields, a key player and supporter of teaching STEM and raising awareness in young students.
During her happy upbringing in Cullercoats, North Tyneside, Hannah Osueke was involved in all things mechanical, as her father was a Chief Engineer on a ship. However, she had ideas about fighting crime and completed her law degree at the age of 21. Shortly after completing her degree Hannah became seriously ill with Lupus disease and spent a long time in intensive care. During recovery she thought about her happy schooldays and decided to follow a career where she could share her passion about empowering young people.
So, after teacher training, she joined King Edward Primary school in North Shields in North Tyneside, and quickly discovered a new vocation. In her own words: “I love having an aim to make a positive impact on future generations, and working with young children helps me to do that and drives me to be the best person I can be “
Her excellent communication skills, positive attitude and imaginative thinking, in particular when involved in teaching science, were noted by her headteacher. That led to her becoming a STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths) leader within her school, and host science fairs and encourage young children to think more from an early age about careers in the STEM arena
IMechE members in the region became involved with Hannah at King Edward school during a regional drive starting in 2016 to showcase Engineering in the North East, for the upcoming 2018 Great Exhibition of the North. A part of that was to grow the number of schools involved with the Greenpower Education Trust Goblin electric car challenge. The Reece Foundation in the North East kindly supported with funding, which has helped the project grow massively year on year. This is a project that has pupils building an electric powered car from a kit, and then designing and making the bodywork, selecting materials and understanding the functioning of components. The team also get the chance to drive the car and compete against other local schools at a local race day.
After first working with IMechE members, Hannah now leads the project at King Edwards without volunteer assistance. This is despite the fact that she is a Year 4 teacher, and the project is for Year 5 and 6, she is given the time out of her regular duties to run the project. She says: “the children become the engineers, they work as a team to complete the project, and then they get to race the car, which is exhilarating for them.”
The all round energy the school has for the project due to Hannah’s leadership, has resulted in King Edward School becoming a focus school for the IMechE STEM efforts in the region, and they were chosen to receive a second Goblin car kit via kind sponsorship from the Reece Foundation working with the IMechE. So now “we can run two projects each year with the cars and involve twice as many children”.
The Greenpower Goblin project has been huge for the school, and was a big motivator for Hannah herself to become involved in STEM learning in general. From that she developed a passion about engineering in general and getting children more aware about STEM in general
In 2018 Hannah was recognised with a National Science Teacher of the Year Award, and became a fellow of the Primary Science Teaching Trust. As such she hosts CPD sessions for other science teachers in the region, as well as developing online teaching resources. This helping greatly with the expansion of STEM awareness in the general region. The work on project has also led to the school achieving the Primary Science Quality Mark Gold in 2017 and Outreach Award 2021
So what next? Regional IMechE and Automobile Division members have now connected King Edward School with an elementary school in Houston, Texas USA, via expat members in that region. The aim is to share STEM learnings and processes and have young students, that are thousands of miles apart and living in different cultures, talk to each other on their experiences and learnings. Also, to share in joint STEM projects and share results and who knows, possibly work together on a Greenpower Goblin project and compare notes along the way.
In Hannah’s words: “STEM projects like Greenpower Goblin, that involve actually designing and making something that works has a great impact and fosters a love for STEM”.
Long live the STEM revolution!