Millennium Point Grant pieces together “Lego WeDo” project
Every year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust Small Grants programme gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. We have funded many different projects across all areas of STEM, supporting learning development for young students.
Here is another great example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.
Who are Great Bridge Primary?
Great Bridge Primary is a large primary school with over 500 students. The school sits in an area of known deprivation within the region. Like many of its kind, the school suffers from limited funding which means a restricted programme to engage pupils in the opportunities of STEM learning.
What’s the project all about?
In 2019, Great Bridge Primary reached out to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust by applying for one of our grant schemes to fund a project called “LEGO WeDo“. The project was set out to enhance the students learning within computing and coding, which would expand their currently limited curriculum. The grant-funded 17 LEGO WeDo sets, for coding lessons at the school alongside resources to help train staff in how to use the equipment. The students also used Lego WeDo software on an iPad, where they combined the two to build physical LEGO models including tilt and movement sensors and motors, which was controlled by code.
What impact has the project made?
The project has contributed to a significant impact on the students learning development and advancing their skillset within computing and coding. Off the back of the project, Great Bridge Primary have been able to deliver an enhanced curriculum with the resources purchased via the grant becoming a staple of their education. Student engagement has also seen a positive reaction within computer science, with many students picking it as their favourite lesson and showing stronger enthusiasm for STEM subjects.
The project has also benefitted many staff members at Great Bridge, improving their confidence within computing and coding, allowing them to set more engaging and “outside-of-the-box” tasks for the pupils.
Great Bridge Primary were delighted with the impact the project made and said: “Enhancing the computing curriculum for upper Key Stage 2 at Great Bridge has had an immediate impact. The children who have taken part in the initial part of the project have had the opportunity to see how coding can be used to control a range of physical mechanisms and relate this to developing knowledge of coding in real-life scenarios. As a school, we will not look back on our Computing curriculum but instead, this project has made us look to the future and consider how we can inspire children to engage with STEM.”
About educational grant funding from Millennium Point
Educators, Charities and Not-for-Profits within the West Midlands Combined Authority can apply for up to £20,000 from Millennium Point to fund their STEM activity. For more information on how to access this funding please visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/grants
Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.
