Nachiket Dighe, co-leader:
The Engineering Club was actually founded last year by former U6 students Tahir and Ludovic. This year, Avanija and I, along with the valuable support of Mr. Lucas, have taken the initiative of introducing the CREST Bronze Award to the club. CREST is a science program for young adults recognised by the British Science Association. To successfully complete this certification, students complete a 10 hour long scientific investigation of their own choice, ranging from experimenting with ‘bath bombs’ to figuring out how to make model roller coasters faster. Since science and engineering have a large degree of practicality involved, my drive to introduce the CREST program was fuelled by the idea of developing the experimental skills of lower school students in an engaging manner.
The seeds of CREST were planted last year when I pitched the idea of its implementation to Ms.Williams, our CCA coordinator. She has been supportive of our venture ever since, and we were even offered a stall of our own during the Freshers’ Fair. In retrospect, this was an important milestone in attracting a vast army of curious-minded students into the Engineering Club. Nevertheless, organising such a programme has not exactly been smooth sailing. Personally, the role reversal from someone who is supposed to listen to the person in authority to someone who is at the front of the class explaining what is supposed to happen has been one of the most challenging experiences of running this club. Yet, I am, slowly but steadily, gaining experience on how this new and exciting role is to be fulfilled.
What we have up and running at the moment is a mere pilot study- a great deal of reflection is to be done before we restart our batch for the second team. As of now, I would like to introduce a greater degree of structure into how the programme is monitored. For instance, I would like to discuss some of the issues that our world is facing today and how technology could provide a potential solution. By doing so, we can get students to think about investigating something that is impactful to contemporary reality. Our ambition is to make The Bronze Award is a stepping stone to running the CREST Silver/ Gold Award in the future.
Avanija Menon, co-leader:
CREST is an amazing opportunity for anyone to do an independent study on the field of their choice, or for someone who wants to extend their skillset whilst also going for a team-based approach. Types of projects range from research-based to practical ones. This platform is great as it reinforces the understanding of students’ prospective career-oriented subject and would truly test their passion for the same.
I had led and completed the CREST Gold Award on quantum mechanics with Saleh Razian, Faris Yazdi and Nadia Praga from September to June last academic year, and found that it was heavily research based and involved thorough analysis. Personally, I am really interested in astronomy and modern physics (as were my teammates) with hints of computer science and maths. Hence, quantum mechanics was a subject that satisfied all of our criteria.
If the CREST award attracts more students, we could leave the STEM boundary and go into projects that involves the humanities, arts or economics- whatever it is that interests students- as CREST is not just restricted to the sciences, and can be used within any aspect of education.
