Snowdonia Space Centre

First Lego League success in Harrogate National Finals 2025

The First Lego League Challenge is a unique opportunity for 9-16 year olds to take a deep dive into the world of STEM, incorporating innovation, creativity and fun while working together as a team. As the name suggests, the Challenge starts with Lego; however, the entire experience extends far beyond building Lego models. In simple terms, the team needs to design their own Lego robot and then code it to perform a series of specific tasks on a specialised mat with Lego models. The team also needs to research a real-world problem related to the theme of the current season and come up with an innovative solution using scientific principles. Finally, the core values of the competition need to shine throughout the journey. If you are interested in participating as a mentor or judging the competition then pleaase contact See Science.

Over the past two years, we have been putting together out-of- school teams for this competition. The team members come from different schools, brought together by their love for Lego, engineering and much more. This year, we had eight team members from four schools in Cardiff. They started working since last September – the team met on Saturday afternoons during term time and also during school holidays. The theme for the 2024-25 Challenge was “Submerged”, hence the team named themselves “Seals in Suits”. Just like ‘seals,’ they are a playful fun-loving group and at the same time are serious in their concerns for the world’s oceans (hence the ‘in suits’).
Coding the robot is usually the most time-consuming part of the challenge and there are more failures than success to begin with.If STEM ambassadors were able to help teams during the first few sesssions this would be a huge benefit. However, the children have shown tremendous resilience in the face of repeated failures and that to us, as mentors, is genuinely inspiring. 

During the First Lego League Challenge journey, it is quite easy to become over-focussed on the robot performance and coding, as these two aspects take up maximum time. However, the often- ignored Innovation Project is another great way for teams to shine. 
Our team this year focussed on the issue of oil spills during offshore oil drilling. They spoke to engineers who have decades of experience in oil rigs as well as experts in the field of communications. Their innovative solution was early detection of oil spills using advanced scientific principles and sensor technology. At the Nationals in Harrogate, the team was absolutely thrilled to receive the Bechtel Safety Award for their Innovation Project solution from none other than one of the sponsors - Bechtel. Hurray for the months of hard work that went into it! For those who might consider putting a team together, my advice would be to start early on and maintain a steady pace throughout. The zoom drop in sessions offered by See Science during the FLL season provide plenty of useful information and advice relevant for the current season. This guidance is absolutely crucial if this is your first year participating in this Challenge. 

The First Lego League journey embedded in ‘gracious professionalism’ and ‘coopertition’ inculcates values and sharpens skills that are really important for life. Our role as mentors is to simply create and hold the space – with supervision and support the children themselves work their way surprisingly well!
Debanjali Bhattacharjee, Cardiff

Merthyr Science Festival - Sat 5th July
 

Expect experiments, and enough brainpower to light up the Valleys with demonstrations, talks and activities from groups including The Geologists Association, Space Forge, Show Me the Science, Institute of Biomedical Science, Health Data Research UK, SWIRL and Antivirals from Cardiff University.We'll also have some mini exhibits from Techniquest.Saturday 5th July at Christ Church, Aberdare Road, Merthyr Tydfil 10am - 4pm.      More information here

Tackling climate change - Engineering UK Climate Change presentation 

EUK Education have produced a Climate / Engineering themed presentation for STEM Ambassadors to use in schools with 11-14 year olds. The PowerPoints, presentation guides,

 quizzes etc are all written for them to deliver a 40 or 55min session, that is customisable for each Ambassador. The resource can be found

here.
 

Careers Week
9 June 2025

Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd,
NP18 2LN

We are a two form entry school and we will be holding a careers week for learners from Nursery to Year 6 during the week of the 9th of June. I would like for STEM Ambassadors to come into school to talk to learners about career options, how you got into your role, the skills needed in the role, a day in the life at work, and then perhaps conduct a short activity showcasing what types of things that you do within the role (such as an experiment, a STEM challenge or similar). We are flexible about the age range that the ambassadors are able to visit and also the amount of time spent within each year group. If you are interested in attending this event please register your interest using the link  here or email hayley.pincott@see-science.co.uk

Engaging Primary Girls in STEM

Libanus Primary School 
Caerphilly
flexible dates
 

I’m writing from Libanus Primary School in Caerphilly, where we are excited to be launching an F1 in Schools club as part of our wider commitment to promoting STEM opportunities for our pupils. We have recently received funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering through the This is Engineering: School – Welsh Valleys project.

To help inspire more girls to engage with STEM and consider joining our F1 Club, we would love to invite a female STEM Ambassador to visit our school and talk to pupils about STEM careers—particularly in areas like engineering, motorsport, or design.

A visit or virtual session would help challenge stereotypes and show our children the wide range of exciting possibilities in STEM.

If you are able to support us in connecting with a suitable ambassador, we’d be very grateful. We are flexible on dates and can plan the visit around the ambassador’s availability. If you are interested in attending this event please register your interest using the link  here or email hayley.pincott@see-science.co.uk

Girlguiding Cymru

Xplore Wrexham
5th July 2025

We are taking over Xplore! Science Discovery Centre for an exclusive event for Girlguiding Cymru members, from Rainbows aged 4+ through to Rangers aged up to 18, and their leaders. We want to inspire the next generation of girls and young people that they can do anything and everything, including STEM!

The event will be between 10.00am and 4.30pm although activities timeslots are likely to be in 30-minute bursts between 10.30am and 3.30pm. We are hoping to have 250+ people each day, broken down into smaller groups of no more than 20 girls/young people at an activity at a time.

We would love to have STEM Ambassadors attend to help run STEM based, hands-on activities. No experience necessary, just a willingness to lend a hand.If you are interested in attending this event please register your interest using the link here or email hayley.pincott@see-science.co.uk

Science Workshop 
Gellifaelog Primary School 
Merthyr Tudfil 
flexible date

Within this term's science topic we are looking at:sound; light; shadows; reversible and irreversible changes; forces and magnets

And we would love STEM Ambassadors to visit our class to demonstrate/deliver any workshops you may have around one of these areas. We are flexible with dates up until the last week of school in July. If you are interested in attending this event please register your interest using the link or email hayley.pincott@see-science.co.uk