Building Bridges
Helen Murray
Last Thursday, we were delighted to be able to offer an engineering Deep Dive from Dr Jinx St.Leger, Engineering Outreach Manager and Engineering Athena Swan Lead (national scheme originally established to support and advance women's careers in STEMM subjects) from the University Of Cambridge.
The idea arose from the very earliest days of Tinker Lab, when Soizic, who was running the sessions then, noticed an interest in engineering among some of our Tinker Labbers and was keen to build on that during sessions and beyond. In session, they got involved in things like building and experimenting with mini zip wires and pulley systems for toys and behind the scenes, Kirsty and I put out feelers for someone who might be able to run a more in-depth session. Our Curiosity Hub facilitator, Barry knew Jinx and put us in touch.
I briefed Jink of on the background and values of Waymakers and Kristy booked our Springstead venue for two back-to-back Deep Dive sessions (one for younger ones with parents staying and one for older ones with drop off option) which took place last week. During the session children and parents got stuck in with experimenting with different designs, structures and strengths to make their own mini bridges with expert input and support from Jinx.
It was lovely to be able to bring members of the community together and have other parents in the session accompanying their children taking some anonymised photos for us to share here (thank you!). This made me reflect on the Waymakers model - it is non-profit so Kristy and I make judgements based on things like experience of facilitator, size of group, whether or not other parents or volunteers from the Waymakers community can attend and specific needs of children booked on to decide if we will attend ourselves or not as it's not always possible or affordable for us to be at every session ourselves. That said, when we're not present, our involvement doesn't end there - we always take care to brief facilitators on the Waymakers values and the needs and interests of the specific children booked on and as we run more and more sessions, we are getting familiar with regular attenders' needs and preferences which makes this an easier task too. Of course each facilitator will be different; have limited capacity themselves to maintain awareness of the nuances of all needs of a group they've only just met and will have their own facilitation style and not necessarily be used yet to working with the diverse needs of home educated children. Parents know best if their child is eager to attend/likely to do well in a group setting (attending with a friend often helps) and we are always happy to work with families to help judge if a session will be a fit for their child as best we can and really appreciate parents' flexibility and active involvement in supporting children in developing their own judgement on what works best for them. This all helps sessions go well and create positive experiences for all involved.
The next Deep Dive available to book (Stop Animation is sold out!) is an online one, it will touch on lots of subjects and skills on the theme of making potions! Book here.
