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Due to the ongoing situation regarding coronavirus, the Rochester Bridge Trust’s education team is hosting events remotely or digitally wherever possible.
We are joining virtual classrooms via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Skype, and any other software used by schools and community groups, to host Virtual Engineering Experiences – challenges and activities to support STEM learning.
Education Manager Caroline Chisholm explains: “During these experiences we introduce ourselves, provide a little history of the Trust, and introduce the challenge. Depending on the ability of the participants we answer questions and provide additional support, before letting them loose on their activity. We then ‘return’ to review and celebrate the engineering that has taken place, managing and observing the testing and judging of completed activities.”
Activities are prepared so that they can be followed without the need of adult interaction, although one adult leader should join the virtual call and supervision nearby is recommended for all participants, in line with general remote learning safety guidance.
Alternatively, if it isn’t possible for the team to virtually join a group, resources are still available for educational use. Parents, teachers, group leaders and guardians can contact the Trust to request resources, and all introductory talks are available as videos if required.
Caroline added: “By making videos available it’s as though we are in the virtual room but without the time constraints of dialling into a call at a specific hour. We’ve done everything we can to make our free learning experiences as easy and accessible as possible because we want to be able to encourage future engineers and support people who may be daunted by the task of home educating.”
In addition to Virtual Engineering Experiences, a range of educational activities are free to download on this website.