Read about how our outreach team took part in the ACS International Schools event, STEAM 2025, hosted at Thorpe Park in Surrey.
Event Overview
On Tuesday 7 October, the Society’s outreach team took part in the ACS International Schools event, STEAM 2025. Hosted at Thorpe Park in Surrey, this provided thousands of school students (aged 8 – 18) with the opportunity to engage with educational and fun science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics workshops.
Throughout the theme park, there were 105 different activities and workshops for students to try. Engaging with an activity earned the students a stamp that went towards a ticket to ride on any of Thorpe Park’s 25 rides, making for an exciting combination of learning and adrenaline.
Our participation
The Geological Society stall was split into 2 parts. The first was our Minerals in a Smartphone activity, which encouraged students to learn about the types of materials that power modern smart technologies and support renewable energy initiatives. The mineral samples, which are all intended to be handled and scrutinised provide a wonderful opportunity for young people to engage directly with materials that are usually behind glass in display panels. The second was our Materials in a Solar Panel game, which challenged teams of students to identify materials that they think might, or might not, be useful in designing a functional, resilient piece of technology – and where these come from. The goal of these activities is to highlight the importance of Earth materials in everyday life, and give some insight into their origin, which is usually obscured from the end user.
With 86 schools in attendance, the team were bowled over by the enthusiasm from the students and engaged with over 1000 young people on the day. This was a great opportunity to test the team’s ability to deliver the content to audiences of a range of ages and sizes. It was also a great test of their knowledge, with hundreds of amazing questions flooding in from the attendees.
A big thank you to ACS International Schools for hosting this wonderful event, which is free to all attendees, and inviting us to come and share our love for all things geoscience. After all the students were on the bus home, the team even had time to whizz round a few rides as well!
Our Minerals in a Smartphone, Solar Panel, and Electric Car posters are available to download for free! Hard copies are also available for an optional donation. Email education@geolsoc.org.uk to find out more.