"Walsall Engineers, Past, Present, Future" wins EEGS grant

Another successful and inspiring project supported by our Engineering Educational Grant Scheme. We are really looking forward to seeing how this progresses! Dawn Price, School Business Manager at Blackwood School, Walsall reports.

Blackwood School has been successful in gaining a grant of £3,750 from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Engineering and Technology for our project "Walsall Engineers, Past, Present, Future".

The purpose of the project is to promote engineering to primary aged children. Dawn Price  explained:

“I came up with the idea because many Walsall children only see the deprivation of Walsall when shopping in the town centre, they don't see the engineering that takes place in and around the back streets of Walsall. 

Also, when you ask children what they want to be, their response is a reality TV star, a vlogger or social media influencer as they earn lots of money.

I wanted to show these children that being an engineer can open many opportunities to them and can be a very well-paid job.”

Over the summer, the children have researched past engineers and engineering in Walsall, looking at,

• the leather trade
• structural engineering, T Partridge & Co Limited
• electrical engineering, Crabtree
• foundry works, Chamberlin & Hill Casting.

The school held an event on Friday 13 September as the 'present' element of the project. Engineers who either live or work in the Walsall area together with STEM ambassadors gave short presentations to the KS2 children, aged 7-11, about how they became an engineer, what they do as an engineer and any interesting projects they have worked on.

We invited engineers from the aircraft industry, automotive industry, plumbers, electrical engineers, and even an engineer who makes parts for navy submarines. We had engineers from a range of multicultural backgrounds, social backgrounds, men and women. This is to show anyone can be an engineer!

There was an exhibition in the school hall where parents and children from our school and St Anne’s Catholic Primary school were invited to look round the exhibition and learn more about what engineers do. We had engineers from Crabtrees, which is now Siemens,  J C Payne, truck bodywork manufacturers, Homeserve plumbers and many more. We may even inspire some parents to change careers!

Over the next four weeks some of these engineers together with STEM ambassadors will be supporting the children in school to design and make prototypes to solve an engineering problem. These designs will then be exhibited publicly in Walsall to inspire the wider community.