STEM initiative is a global winner
Congratulations to Eddie Henbury, Cara Mansbridge, Alice Smith and Angharad Vaughan from Fawley who have all been recognised with an award for their work to keep youngsters engaged in educational activities during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Congratulation to Eddie Henbury, Cara Mansbridge, Alice Smith, and Angharad Vaughan from Fawley who have all been recognised with an award for their work to keep youngsters engaged in educational activities during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
With the majority of school age children confined to home during the pandemic, the group decided to offer some additional learning support. Now, their efforts have been rewarded with a 2020 ExxonMobil Chemical Team Award for Excellence in Responsible Care in the category of Community Awareness (COVID).
Angharad, Fawley’s community affairs adviser and STEM Lead, said: “Trying to engage with young people and make science, technology, engineering, and maths fun and interesting is something we are committed to at Fawley. With most young people at home, we wanted to reach out to them in a way that meant they could learn and have fun at the same time.”
The team came up with the idea of creating online activity packs, one aimed at infant and primary aged children and one more suited to secondary school pupils. STEM Ambassadors Eddie and Alice provided some experiments that youngsters could do at home, while Fawley’s community affairs assistant Cara added YouTube footage to demonstrate how the experiments work.
The STEM packs were emailed to each of Fawley’s link schools every week and shared internally with ExxonMobil sites across the UK and the global network, including the US and Nigeria. Externally, they were made available via the Fawley Online website and promoted via Instagram and Twitter, extending their reach even further.
Richard Henderson, Fawley Chemicals manager, said: “I would like to offer my congratulations to Eddie, Cara, Alice, and Annie on their award success. The online STEM pack initiative was a perfect reflection of our ongoing desire to play an active and supportive role in the community, even in difficult circumstances. Engaging young people in STEM subjects is something we are passionate about at Fawley and this award is testament to the fantastic work we are doing in this area. Well done team!”
The STEM packs can still be accessed via the Fawley Online website. Go to fawleyonline.org.uk.