• The K’NEX Challenge is a STEM Outreach project in affiliation with SETPOINT and STEMNET.
• Arup staff support Millbrook School, Hertfordshire where children discover STEM through fun activities.
• School staff and pupils really value this activity as a fun way to showcase STEM subjects and careers.

Carolyn Gallehawke and Paul Robinson, services engineers from group BEL G in London, run an annual STEM Outreach activity for Year 6 called the K’NEX Challenge with an organisation called SETPOINT, an affiliate of STEMNET (the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network) which creates opportunities to inspire young people in STEM. Carolyn and Paul been running this activity at Millbrook School in Hertfordshire for the past 15 years with great success.

This year’s K’NEX Challenge task was to design and build a working catapult which could fire a ping pong ball a distance of 30 cm over a 22cm high wall. The challenge required children to use their team working skills, co-operative thinking and planning, lateral design thinking and creativity to adapt and improve their designs.

The activity was well received by teachers, who said that “all children are fully engaged and absorbed in the activity and show enthusiasm regardless of their academic abilities. It was therefore very much enjoyed by the class who could all participate fully and confidently.”

Contact Catherine Rankine for more opportunities like this.