To place a booking CLICK HERE

St. John's School, Potter Street Hill, Pinner, HA5 3ZF

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Please note: Two week's notice is required for a refund for cancellation.

If you are a STEM Den 'regular' and have completed the activity already on offer on the day you would like to attend, then please do email Mrs McSween as quite often we can tailor the program to accomodate your specific needs. If you are building a portfolio for a STEM or DT&E scholarship this could be you!

A really exciting program of activities for you for this Summer.

We are so pleased to see so many STEM specialists join our team and work with us in their holidays.

Summer 2024

Week 1 - July 15th - 19th

Monday 15th July - Three Hands On! Minds On! classes for this day:

Learning about UV light through hands on activities including painting with photochromic paint. Two separate classes; one for age 7 to 13 years and one for 5 & 6 years old. Science Crest Award Opportunity
Textiles Skill builder - Olympics themed fun. Turn a pair (or more) of old socks into Olympians and have fun filming them to make a short film using IPads. Use photochromic paint.

Tuesday 16th July - Days with two halves themed around the Euros:

Aged 7 and above - Investigations around ball pressure, probability, heart rate and recovery. Design and make a Euro inspired GIF.
Aged 5 and 6 - Build a table football game from a cardboard box. Textiles skill builders; pompoms, finger puppets, weaving, finger knitting.

Wednesday 17th July - Olympics themed STEM fun, Four classes to choose from on this day:

Age 7 to 13 years - Olympic themed, child led independent engineering.
Aged 5 and 6 - Olympics themed STEM challenges intended to develop skills and devlop critical thinking for younger pupils.
Age 5 to 13 years - Sphero Bolt Olympics. New to our camps, the Sphero Bolt is an exciting tool for teaching programming skills, Click here to find out more.
Age 7 and above - Textiles Skill Builder - Class 1 of 3. Children will be taught how to use a sewing machine. Please bear this in mind when booking. They will be expected to thread their own needles and sit still at a sewing machine for a long time through the day with play times in between. Is this suitable for your child?

Thursday 18th July - Hands On! Minds On! Four classes for this day:

Textiles Skill builder - Class 2 of 3. More sewing machine based activities, make fun soft toys. Opportunity to do tie and dye and toothpaste batik. Age 7 plus.

Will it? Won't it? The following classes are based on developing an understanding of probabilty:

Ages 7 to 13 - Science based investigations on probability. Crumble programming - make a 'Wheel of Fortune... or maybe Misfortune!
Ages 5 & 6 - Probability Investigations and 'design and make activities'.
Ages 5 to 13 - Sphero Bolt Crazy Golf - a programming and design and make activity. Click here to find out more about Sphero Bolt.

Friday 19th July - Three fun filled educational classes on this day:

Textiles Skill builder - Class 3 of 3. More sewing machine based activities as students revamp old clothes to make new. Age 7 to 13 years
Crumble programming - Learn about Thorpe Park and its theme park rides. Design and make a programmed fairground type ride. Please note that rides can be taken home, Crumble kits stay at STEM Den. Aged 7 to 13 years.
Similar sessions as for older children but this class is designed with our younger students in mind. Age 5 & 6 only. Learn about Thorpe Park and its theme park rides. Design and make a programmed fairground type ride. Please note that rides can be taken home, LEGO WeDo kits stay at STEM Den. Aged 7 to 13 years.

Week 2 - July 22nd to 26th

Starting together for our lesson introductions, our class then splits into age appropriate experiences to get the best from all our young engineers.

Monday 22nd July - All the Fun of the Fayre

Work collaboratively to build a fun fayre game for others to play at the end of the day.

Tuesday 23rd July - Conservation of rhino

Learn about Imire, a very special place in Zimbabwe where protection of rhino is top of the priority list. A repeated session which we teach every year at least once. STEM Den makes a donation to Imire whenever we run this course. Have a look at the family volunteering opportunties. Both Mrs McSween and Mrs Reeves have been to Imire - Click here to find out more! or come and talk to us.

Age 5 & 6s - STEM engineering challenges with an African theme
Age 7 and above - Build a rhino enclosure to take home. Use Crumble kits to program a fence with an alarm whihc will sound when the poachers cut through to get in. Please note that Crumble kits stay in STEM Den.

Wednesday 24th July

Both our older group and younger group look at the mechanisms of pulleys and gears, incorporating them into fairground rides which can be taken home.

Thursday 25th July

Brilliant Bees! Our visiting bee keeper, Mrs Telfer is back again to teach us the importance of being a friend to bees. Two classes, split by age after the talk. Activities are all bee related and include making candles from bees wax. A favourite STEM Den activity!

Friday 26th July

Short Film Making using IPads- Two classes, one making stop motion animation and the other filming home made shadow puppets. Enjoy writing a script in a group, making the props and showing off your film!

Week 3 - July 29 -31st (3 days)

Monday 29th July

Gears! Gears! Gears! A workshop based, child led day based around gears. Engineer your own gear based toy to take home. Age 7 to 13
Use and develop ICT skills to design and print your own T-Shirt with sublimation printing. Age 7 and above.
Forest Schools - Learn how to make a clove hitch and square lashings to make a frame for some special woodland art. Nature detectives activities from the Woodland Trust looking for wildlife in the beautiful grounds at St John's School. Age 5 and above.

Tuesday 30th July

Focus on HS2 - Joined by a visting speaker and sponsor of HS2, Sean Browne comes oto talk to us to share his knowledge of this special feat of engineering. Build a moving train using pulleys and a motor to take home.
A day of two halves: Sphero Bolt - bridge challenge & Forest Schools Activities

Wednesday 31st July

A day of two halves: Programming with VEX Go (age 7 to 13 years) or LEGO WeDo (ages 5 & 6)
Sphero Bolt Programming - learning through the theme of the Olympics.

Week 4 - August 20th - 22nd (3 days)

Two classes running at the same time. Age groups all mixed up with children of all ages working together.

Tuesday 20th August

Biomimicry - Engineers look to the natural world to solve problems. In this special class. we welcome our guest speaker to talk about his animals while we handle (some of them, if we want to) and look at how they have adapted to survive in their environment. Students come up with design solutions using biomimicry as their focus.

Wednesday 21st August

Looking after your teeth is crucial considering the importnt role they have in our lives. Our visiting dentist pays us a visit and teaches us the wonder of caring for teeth. Teeth related STEM activities.

Thursday 22nd August

Paper and Card - Where does it come from? How can we recycle it? Learn some important techniques for building with paper and card. Have a go at making your own recycled paper.
Mini masterclass from Mr Stratton, 'materials scientist and engineer extraodinaire' about matter and what makes it so useful in engineering.

To place a booking CLICK HERE

What are the Science Crest Awards all about?

Plan, carry out and evaluate your own STEM based investigations to achieve a Nationally Recognized Award. Children aged between 5 and 10 will need 8 investigations all stamped off in their book, Children aged 10 and above take an all day challenge. Click here to find out more.

VEX robotics kits will be available every day on request, depending on availability. There are two different levels of kit depending on age and experience. We have VEX GO and VEX IQ. For our younger students from Rec to Year 3 we have VEX 123 or Educational Lego kits are ideal to start the journey of programming. For our youngest students aged 5 to 7 we suggest this is taught in small bitesize chunks around half an hour long. Click the link to find out more.

Our LEGO, SPHERO BOLT, CRUMBLE and VEX kits are to be used within the camp only and cannot be taken home. You might like to buy a CRUMBLE kit. They are available from Redfern electronics to purchase for around £25 and can be used for hundreds of other project ideas. Software for this is a free download. For more details click here.)

Where are we? Northwood

St. John's School, Northwood, HA63QYRegister now to be on our mailing list OR submit a query.

St. John's School, Northwood, HA63QY
Register now to be on our mailing list OR submit a query.