JULY 2019

Last week we were delighted to present thirty-one CREST Star Awards to children from the St Austell Home Education Group.  What a fantastic achievement!

The St Austell Home Education Group come to Wheal Martyn every month for a Learning day, tackling various challenges and activities with the support of the Education Officer.  Since January the group have focused on Science topics and STEM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Gemma Martin, Wheal Martyn’s Education Officer, was delighted with the group’s progress: “We have had a lot of fun experimenting and investigating the science of our site here at Wheal Martyn.  We have delved into space, designed and built ships to carry clay, researched engineering feats from our local heritage, got close to nature in the woods, focused on the eye and how we see and played with sound.  It’s been a busy and productive 7 months!”

The British Science Association CREST Star Awards are a great introduction to problem-solving in STEM. They offer children the opportunity to learn through hands-on challenges that focus on their everyday lives.  Gemma added, “The Home Ed group have certainly learnt a great deal through experimenting and problem solving – we’ve built spaghetti tower structures, junk model musical instruments, found the ages of the trees in our woods and designed our own mini beasts and made them out of clay!”

Following the success of the STEM Sessions, Gemma will be able to offer The CREST Awards and Science Activities to any visiting schools group at Wheal Martyn.  The St Austell Home Ed Group will now be rolling up their sleeves to tackle the next challenge – bringing the arts into science with STEAM, Arts Award and CREST Super Star challenges.