Ethical hacking, the importance of online safety and how to become a cyber security expert.

Year 6 students at Ocean Academy recently spent a morning discovering more about these subjects with the help of two inspiring female STEM experts. 

The virtual meet with cyber security analyst, Maria Khokhar and Penny Morton, a product design engineer, saw pupils listen as they talked about their interesting careers. The children then engaged in a live question and answer session with the experts. 

The session was organised by SmartSTEMs, a Scottish based charity, which helps to connect schools to STEM-based role models.

The Year 6 children were fascinated to listen to Ms Khokhar as she talked about ethical hacking, the importance of online safety and how she became a cyber security expert. Ms Morton spoke about her love of creative problem solving and STEM subjects like physics and maths which led to her exciting career in product design.

 

Following the virtual meet, the children were set a problem solving task – to design and build the tallest tower out of paper plates. The winning groups are looking forward to receiving a special prize in the post from SmartSTEMs.

The challenge was then followed by a discovery question time – discussing how a current real life problem could be solved in the future.

The aim of the STEM morning at Ocean was to create and strengthen connections between industry and education, and help children to connect their current learning to future careers.

Ocean Academy is looking forward to working with SmartSTEMs again in the future to develop this STEM relationship and help the children to understand the breadth and depth of STEM careers that are available now and those that might be created in the future.

For more information visit smartstems.org