Year 8 STEM Workshop

KHS had the pleasure to host a STEM workshop for a selected Year 8 Geography class. Two guest speakers, Martin and Dena from Pure Data gave a presentation on how digital technology enhances our life, but also how it could have a negative impact on us too.

The session was centred around sustainability and we learnt about, among other things, biochar, which is a carbon- rich substance that is made when organic materials are heated to temperatures above 400°C with little or no oxygen in a process called ‘pyrolysis’. A thermal reaction occurs that turns part of the material into biochar. It is possible to feed that to cattle, which considerably reduces methane emission as biochar has a huge surface area to absorb the greenhouse gas!

Students also had some career advice on what path to take to become a chartered engineer and an architect. The presenters highly commended on how well- mannered, curious and enthusiastic the class was with their many questions they wanted answers to.