Date: 15^th May 2024 2-4pm

We are excited to announce that the first meeting for the STEM working group will be taking place on the 15^th May 2-4pm. The STEM working group has been set up to share practice and ideas about ways to improve outreach activity, support access, and effectively support success and progression in STEM. The first working group session will start with a lightening talk from Kate Mulcahy from Imperial College London about how their Dangoor Reach out Makerspace is supporting young people.

The Dangoor Reach out Makerspace is a dedicated workshop created for underserved young people in the West London community local to Imperial College London. From here Kate leads hands-on programmes promoting innovation, problem-solving, transferrable life skills, STEM subjects, higher education as well as vocational and technical career routes. The space houses a variety of tools such as 3D printers, scanners, laser cutters, woodworking equipment. 159 schools in London have engaged with these programmes; more than 2,300 young people have taken part in over 880 workshops at the Makerspace. In this talk Kate will discuss the lessons learned and challenges faced in running a dynamic, cross-disciplinary learning environment.

Kate Mulcahy has worked at Imperial College London since 2017 when she set up the Reach Out Makerspace and launched its suite of programmes which aim to inspire and excite young people into STEAM – making designing and hands on learning. Before this she worked at the Royal Institution, particularly on the 2014 Christmas Lectures which had a making and engineering focus. She founded the Science in Schools programme there and worked as a presenter on their YouTube channel. She has also worked in the Science Museum on a range of projects and as a secondary school teacher in the UK and Ireland.