STEM Conveyor Belt Challenge in Design Technology

Posted at 11:10 am on 25th June, 2024

 Year 8 Learn About the Manufacturing Industry from Stateside Foods

On 13th June, Wellacre’s Design Technology department welcomed Stateside Food for a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) Conveyor Belt Challenge.

Based in Bolton, Stateside Foods have been in business for over 30 years, supplying leading food retailers with branded and own label chilled pizzas, and visited Wellacre to speak to Year 8 students about the food manufacturing industry and career opportunities within it. 

  

Hearing all about the different areas within the business including logistics and production, students developed an understanding of degree apprenticeships, from Business Management to Engineering, and the range of opportunities available at large manufacturing businesses. 

One Year 8 student said:

"We have had the opportunity to talk to Stateside Foods apprentices who started their apprenticeship from school and they explained the process to us which really helped me gain a better understanding.”

All students then joined teams to engineer their own “production line”, mentored by Stateside Foods employees and apprentices.  The challenge was for students to create a raised path using boxes, straws and skewers to enable a ‘pizza’ (ping-pong ball) to travel along the conveyor belt design. 

Mrs Bentley, Leader of Design Technology, Food and Art, said:

“It was a fantastic experience for our Year 8 students to develop knowledge of manufacturing industry opportunities.  They also gained skills in communication, negotiation and teamwork, as well as design and engineering.” 

Another Year 8 student added:

“I enjoyed working as a team to solve design problems. We had to communicate and listen to one another in order to produce our working conveyor belt.” 

Mrs Sharrock, Principal, said:

“The time spent with the students completing the challenge was hugely enjoyable.  They worked well as teams and were ingenious in their solutions! Thanks to Stateside for supporting our careers-related learning.”