FameLab Academy

As an alumna of FameLab engineering, I was asked to take part in FameLab Academy. For those of you who don’t know what FameLab is: it’s a competition for scientists and engineers to explain a science/engineering/technology topic of their choice in 3 minutes with no powerpoint slides or any props that they cannot carry on stage. Competitors are judged on content, clarity and charisma and tend to have a lot of fun! FameLab academy is the same competition, but for Year 9 students (13/14 year olds). There are 8 schools in Gloucestershire competing this year, and the Royal Academy of Engineering and edf are helping to provide engineering mentors for each of the schools to help train and inspire the students. I am one of those mentors and have been lucky enough to be paired with Pates Grammar School.

The first stage in the process was a two day course where both engineers and the link teachers from the schools were given details on how the competition would work, and the structure of the training workshops for the students. The first day involved lots of FameLab pitches and feedback with Elin Roberts @elinoroberts training the engineers, and Nick Harrigan @sparrigan with the teachers. We learnt how to catch our audience’s attention, hold it and then reveal our key point. We looked at using storytelling to our advantage and tried selling imaginary products to each other.

As each school has planned different ways of running the workshops and the competition, we were given an opportunity to discuss with our link teacher how we could best help the school we were placed with. At Pates, they were planning on involving the whole of year 9, with each of the 5 groups in the year selecting 2 students to go trough to a school final. After talking to Janet, we thought it would be best if I go in when they launch the competition, to give my FameLab piece and a bit of an introduction. She also thought it might be useful for me to speak to some of the older students about engineering, and the variety of careers that can come from it. As an Oxford graduate, I was also happy to speak to nervous Oxbridge applications about interviews if that was needed.

On the second day, the teachers went back into the schools full of enthusiasm and we were given Nick and cameraman Jonathon Sanderson @jjsanderson to direct some instructional videos to support the workshops. This was very challenging but also a lot of fun. We were in pairs, and managed to get 7 video clips produced by the end of the day. My topic was rehearsal, and so involved Nick talking to himself, a fencing mask, and his friends. After some speedy editing, we got to see the videos and were all very impressed with how they came out. The final version is now online - take a look, they are very funny!

I can’t wait to start getting involved and watch the project progress throughout the year. FameLab was such a confidence booster for me that I hope it can do the same for the students!