EWB has had a very productive term, right from their Welcome Meeting and a great uptake for our outreach workshops promoting engineering and sustainability in local schools. Treasurer Daniel Kgautlhe tells us more.
Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has had a very productive first term, starting right with our Welcome Meeting. We had an attendance of more than 70 people and talked about the work that our society does in Birmingham as well as the rest of the UK to make the world a better place through sustainable engineering.
This included highlighting the STEM outreach workshops we do in schools in Birmingham and fundraising events we hold for EWB UK. The main aim of these outreach activities is to inspire school children to gain an interest in STEM subjects and responsible engineering, and encourage them to consider how they could change the world.
Members enjoying pizza after an icebreaker challenge during the welcome meeting. The aim was to build the tallest tower that could support a marshmallow using only spaghetti and tape.
We participated in several fairs in order to advertise the society to the wider University community. This included the Guild Freshers’ Fair and the EPS Societies Fair. Not only were we able to get new members but we also networked with other societies and are in talks with them to organise future events together. Exciting stuff!
Our Secretary, Lidia Islam at the EWB stand during the Freshers fair
Our Event Coordinators, Roy Bleicher and Yesi Rahaman at the EWB stand during the EPS fair
Following our first meeting we held an outreach taster session in which we demonstrated to our new members what we normally do during our workshops in local schools. The workshop we ran is titled ‘Power for Everyone Everywhere’. It educates school-aged pupils on the rising demand for energy in the UK and the rest of the world, and how it can be sustainably addressed by building wind turbines. At the end of the session, participants are then asked to design and build their own model wind turbines which are tested with the aid of a fan. It was a very interactive and fun exercise and everyone who participated in it said that they would love to take part in outreach with Engineers Without Borders!
Our Outreach Coordinators organised a STEM Induction for our new members so that they could start participating in our outreach events. This event showed members the steps they needed to take in order to get their DBS checks done and the resources that were available on the STEM Learning website. Once fully inducted, members would become STEM Ambassadors, something which would also help them in their professional careers as well. Outreach is really important to us as we can inspire the next generation about globally responsible engineering and providing equal access to basic necessities such as electricity and water. This shapes the work we do at Engineers Without Borders Birmingham.
After the STEM Induction had lit the inner fire to do outreach in our society, the Outreach Coordinators organised 2 events in which members went to local schools to deliver the ‘Power for Everyone Everywhere’ workshop. We had more than 60 students participating and the feedback we received from both teachers and pupils was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, we were invited to do the workshops again next year!
Our Public Relations and Publicity Officers, Zachary Howdle and Zhariff Hazali with Susan Byatt from the STEM Hub West Midlands
We’ve also started our fundraising with a doughnut sale on campus in week 9 in which we raised £72 for EWB UK. We aim to raise £200 by the end of the academic year so the sale was considered a great success. The money was donated to the national charity EWB UK where it will be channelled into funding all the good work that the charity is doing all around the world. More information on this can be found on the EWB UK website.
Our President, Tarundeep Sandhu pictured on his way to University with the doughnuts
The events we have planned for the second term are as exciting as the ones that were planned for the first. We will have 5 more outreach workshops as well as our new flagship event, the Designathon. Furthermore we will have a fundraiser in order to achieve our £200 target. We are thankful for the continued support that our society has received, and we look forward to an even more successful second term!
Daniel Kgautlhe
Treasurer 2019/2020
