Join us this October 22nd for our annual Virtual STEMFest event! This special online event concludes off our famous STEMFest season, which takes place between 7th – 22nd October 2024.
STEMFest is all about discovery and learning, and this year we have teamed up with the incredible Eden Project to offer this virtual version of our flagship event!
After the success of last year’s STEMFest, we will once again be exploring evolution through the work of the Darwin200 expedition. Students will be invited to travel back in time to follow in the footsteps of Charles Darwin as he navigated the globe after setting sail from Plymouth, Britain’s Ocean City.
On October 22nd, your class can log on to a live session, streamed from both the National Marine Aquarium and the Eden Project’s Rainforest Biome.
Exploring the themes of conservation and evolution, this two-part session is designed to inspire and engage students in Key Stage 2 & 3. This event is completely FREE and can be joined by any class or home-educated students around the world!
Event Timetable
09:15AM (GMT) – Log on and get comfortable – make sure each pupil has a pencil, their downloadable worksheet and the random number generator (available from our resource page here!)
09.30AM-10.15AM (GMT) – Dive under the waves to meet some of the Oceans most charismatic creatures, and resurface in the rainforest! Classes will explore both the marine and Rainforest Biomes, where they’ll find unusual plant and animal adaptations and symbiotic relationships, while learning about important ecosystems and the connections within and between them.
10.45AM-11.30AM (GMT) – After a short break, we return to the NMA’s Learning Centre, where we will travel back to the beginning of time. Here we will explore the origins of life on earth; using their random number generators students will create and evolve new life forms then see whose animals would survive historic extinction events and make it to the modern day!
We will also be providing a host of FREE post-visit activities, all designed to support the learning of STEMFest, including using real-life survey techniques to understand how scientists study the natural world. These can be downloaded here:
If you would like to join us for virtual STEMFest, book below! For more information or any questions, please email learning@oceanconservationtrust.org or call 01752 275 233
National Marine Aquarium
The National Marine Aquarium (NMA) is the UK’s largest aquarium, located in Britain’s Ocean City, Plymouth. It is home to around 5,000 animals found in different parts of our Ocean, from starfish to sharks, lobsters to rays, and everything in between. The NMA is owned and operated by the Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT) a charity whose mission is to connect people to the Ocean, encouraging pro-Ocean behaviour and positive action.
The Eden Project
Set inside a former clay mine in Cornwall, The Eden Project has transformed a once barren crater, with no soil or plants, into a living theatre of plants and people. The Eden Project is home to one of the world’s largest indoor rainforests and houses thousands of species of plants from all over the world. Through its educational programmes, the Eden Project aims to demonstrate and inspire positive action for the planet. They achieve this by working with, for and as part of nature to repair our broken relationship with the natural world.
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