On Saturday 25 February, King Edward VI Grammar School (KEGS) Young Engineers team 'Illuminatus', all in year 8, embarked on a journey to the First Lego League (FLL) National Finals at the University of Western England in Bristol. It was a great experience and we all gained something from it.
Thank you to CSES for awarding us a STEM Club Bursary which helped us to continue with this competition and go to Bristol. Below, some of the team members have given their own accounts of the event and what they have learned from it.
Congratulations to team Illuminatus, who went on to win the Design Execution award at the 2017 Schools' Competition.
In LEGO club, we use LEGO to practise STEM skills. We have used LEGO to make boats that float, make bridges that hold at least 2 kg, create models to design specifications and learn basic coding. Our favourite challenge was to design and make a device to send a LEGO figure down a zip line. We also enjoyed building tall towers and figuring out ways to make them stable. We were happy to receive the bursary and hope to use it to get some technical LEGO and power functions so we can build moving models.
— Daniel, Christopher, Maya and Tom (10 years old)
CSES awarded a bursary of £100 to Frinton-on-Sea Primary School in January 2017, followed by the STEM Club Award at the 2017 Schools' Competition.
IET Faraday Challenge Day 2018 organised by CSES at Anglia Ruskin University
Following the success of last year's Faraday Challenge, we plan to organise another great IET Challenge Day at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in 2018.
We are offering schools the opportunity to register early for this exciting IET event in 2018.
We propose the following dates in 2018:
- Tuesday 9 January
- Wednesday 10 January
- Tuesday 23 January
- Wednesday 24 January
This is a fun learning experience for all.
Congratulations to everyone who won an award at the 2017 Schools' Competition, which took place on Wednesday 28 June 2017 at Anglia Ruskin University.
CSES members' social: Tue 4 July 2017, 17:00, Sandford Mill
It's the long-awaited return of the CSES social trips and tours!
We are offering an exclusive opportunity to look around the abandoned water filtering plant at Sandford Mill, along with a private tour of the Marconi and industrial museum, with Tim Wander.
This is only the second time the filter house has been open to the public since the original opening in October 2016. Don't miss out!
See our events page for more details and to book.
Read more: Upcoming social: Sandford Mill museum and waterworks tour
CSES members' social: Tue 30 May 2017, 19:00, San Chinese Restaurant
We invite our members and their guests to join us for our May 2017 social, to be held on Tuesday 30 May, 7pm at the San Chinese Restaurant in Moulsham Street.
There is an all-you-can-eat deal and, having held dinners at this venue before, we can assure you that the food is excellent!
Marconi's Birthday Bash: Sunday 23 April 2017, Sandford Mill; Titanic exhibition: 8 April – 25 June 2017, Bond Street
We are proud to support two upcoming events celebrating our city's industrial heritage.
Chelmsford Museum will be celebrating Guglielmo Marconi's birthday on 23 April with a special Marconi-themed Birthday Bash at Sandford Mill, from 10am to 4pm.
Chelmsford Civic Society are hosting the Titanic: Honour and Glory touring exhibition in Bond Street from 8 April until 25 June, to celebrate the importance of Marconi's work in Chelmsford and the critical role it played in saving the lives of passengers on the Titanic.
Membership fee increase and web server upgrades
We will increase our standard membership fee from £8 to £12 (annually) by October 2017. This follows a motion approved at the society's Annual General Meeting, held at Anglia Ruskin University on 23 November 2016, to raise the membership fee.
Existing members will be charged the increased rate at their next renewal, which will be no earlier than October 2017. This change does not affect free membership categories.
Maverick TV are currently casting for a new engineering show for Channel 4, and have approached CSES to seek participants.
They are looking for exceptional individuals who have a passion for engineering and are willing to take on the ultimate challenge. They will drop the contestants into remote locations around the world and ask them to create an escape vehicle out of the debris of a fictional crash site. The series is not just about survival – it is about escaping.
Read more: Channel 4 seeks engineers to star in new show "Escape"
IET Faraday Challenge hosted by CSES and Anglia Ruskin University, Wed 18 Jan 2017
On Wednesday 18 January 2017, teams of six Year 8 students from Greensward Academy, Westcliff High School for Girls, Westcliff High School for Boys, Colchester Royal Grammar School and King Edward VI Grammar School took part in the Faraday Challenge run by IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) and CSES at Anglia Ruskin University.
They were set the task of working together to design and build a product to solve problems. As the Challenge is a national competition, the exact nature of the task is a secret but involved coding a computer to respond to feedback from various sensors, and then presenting the final product, at the end of the day, to two judges from the IET.
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- Press release: Local schools to take part in UK engineering challenge
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- My Smarter Essex follow-up questions
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- Poll results from My Smarter Essex
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