Birches Head Hack Lab helps students get STEM

Stoke-on-Trent's Birches Head High School has opened a hack lab to improve its student’s computer skills and nurture their creativity. The lab aims to teach pupils how to hack into everyday technology, such as gaming equipment, and give the devices a new purpose.

Part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) curriculum, the first project from the hack lab involves students using a Nintendo Wii remote to emulate an electronic white board.

The new classes have been getting the pupils creative juices flowing and the results have been truly astounding. A future project is based on the idea of integrating an iPad into a reception table, so its touch screen functionality can be used to flip through documents while in a waiting room.

"These kinds of activities give pupils the chance to learn on their own and question things around them," explained Sarah Williams, Assistant Vice Principal for Teaching at Birches Head High School and the initiator of the programme. "As students encounter problems it enables them to find creative technology solutions.

“In the case of the iPad coffee table, finding the right type of glass that would enable the touch screen functionality is proving to be quite a challenge," recalls Williams. “This is a genuine materials science question and a long way from the tradition of teaching STEM using egg boxes and straws!

“The pupils have taken to the hacking lab brilliantly,” enthused Karen Healey, Birches Head’s head teacher. “We want children to question technology and think deeply about the future of ICT. We want them to recognize that the pace of technological change is incredible and that they can be part of that," she explained.

The project has been launched in partnership with Stoke based creative technologies firm BitJam and has a three year vision of teaching STEM skills to the pupils at Birches Head. Given the interest and innovative results it has achieved, the school expects the Hacklab project to be extended.

There has even been talk of investing in a mobile hacking lab, which would give pupils at other schools in the local community the opportunity to experience the hacking lessons.

The sessions take place at lunch time and after school and the turnout is always high, which testifies to the children's interest in technology and questioning the traditional use of common devices.