Helping young people become future engineers

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Teacher FAQs

Do you have a question?

This page sets out some of the main questions we get asked. If there is anything more specific you need assistance with please contact our Schools team.

What happens on an in-person STEM day?

When you book an in-person event, one of our STEM Engagement Specialists will visit your school to deliver a full-day workshop for up to 60 students. We’ll work around your school’s start, break, and finish times to make the day run smoothly. In some cases, half-day options may be available. All key equipment is provided, we bring everything needed to run the session!

At Secondary School events students begin with an introduction to essential STEM skills, benchmarked against the Skills Builder Universal Framework 2.0, and explore future career pathways. After a quick icebreaker, they’ll work in teams to tackle a hands-on design-and-make challenge. Throughout the day, they’ll test, refine, and present their final projects, often with a competitive twist to keep things exciting.

At Primary School events students take part in a simplified version of the engineering process: design, build, test, and compete. The workshops run as a series of mini STEM projects. All activities are inspired by how engineers solve real-world problems, with links to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

For virtual events, we livestream directly into your classroom from our head office. All the essential materials are sent to you in advance, so you’re ready to go when the session begins.

On our STEMQuest events, students take part in a full design, build, test, and compete process. Our educators guide each stage live, pausing the stream to give students time to work on their projects before continuing. This format keeps the day structured and interactive.

We encourage participation throughout the event, schools can share photos of their progress and ask questions using the live chat. It’s a great way to stay connected, celebrate creativity, and bring STEM to life in your classroom.

We have a range of projects available, such as those listed below.  The type of project may be chosen in advance by the funder for free STEM days, and we will make this clear when offering you any available days. For paid for STEM days, the school can decide which project best suits their needs.

  • Aircraft Challenge
  • Autonomous Vehicle Challenge
  • Bridge Challenge
  • Centrifuge Challenge
  • Cyber Challenge
  • Marine Technology Challenge
  • Rail Challenge
  • Renewable Energy Challenge
  • Speaker Challenge
  • Glider Challenge
  • Sustainable Systems Challenge
  • Wind Turbine Challenge
  • Robotics Challenge

STEM days are designed to complement the National Curriculum in science, technology, engineering and maths by showing how classroom learning connects to the wider world. 

Students receive age-appropriate insights into what engineers do. In primary schools, this means exploring real-world problem solving in a fun and accessible way. In secondary schools, students learn about future careers and pathways in higher and further education, while developing essential skills like creative thinking, time management, teamwork, problem-solving, enterprise, and personal and social development. All our projects are aligned with the Universal Skills Builder 2.0 framework.

Schools benefit too! STEM days help raise student performance, enrich the curriculum, and support goals like achieving Specialist status in engineering, science, technology, or business enterprise.

For in-person events:

We will make it clear on booking what space we need for the day. Typically this is a large hall with a projector and means of connecting a laptop/USB.  We will bring any safety equipment such as glue guns and craft knives along with all the materials needed to deliver that specific project. We require 2 school staff to be present in the room to manage student behaviour and supervise any equipment stations such as glue guns.  

For virtual events:

We livestream straight into your classroom, with our educators based in our head office. Some projects require you to set up a testing area and again we make this clear in advance what is required. Any core kit that is required to deliver the day is sent to your school in advance.  

We may ask schools to provide essentials such as scissors, pencils etc. for both in-person and virtual events.  Felt tips, A4 & A3 paper would also be helpful for you to provide.

There are two ways you can get a free STEM day:

  1. Check out our events calendar to see what events you can book directly. This is normally our teacher CPD events and primary school virtual events.
  2. The majority of our in-person events are not advertised on our calendar, especially our secondary school events as these often have specific criteria set by our funders. But with over 400 free STEM days a year, there may be a free event suitable for your school.  Please contact our schools team to see what is currently available.

If you can’t see the answer you need, please do get in touch with our Schools team 

What to Expect

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whats in it for teachers bg

What's in it
for teachers?

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Professional delivery by Smallpeice Educators

Sit back and let our deliverers take your students on a journey into the world of STEM and engineering.

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Real world application of STEM subjects

Our events are fantastic at bringing STEM to life and inspire students by demonstrating real life application.

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Clear links to the National Curriculum and Skills Builder

All our activities align with the national curriculum and we use the Skills Builder framework to help students evidence progression in those softer social skills such as listening, teamwork etc.

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