The students were invited to the annual ThinkIT event, hosted at the IBM campus in gardens and main house at Hursley Park. During this the students are introduced to a number of different sections of the IBM environment, all based around a problem that they need to solve for an individual.
This means that the students need to discuss the problem and develop a potential solution using the Design Thinking methods that IBM staff demonstrated, including some storyboarding of the solution and a fully formed product ready for the next stage. This forms some marketing, as they needed to allow many people who have similar problems to benefit from the solutions that they had created, therefore a logo, short description and screenshots were planned. Students then had to create a website, mirroring this paper based design.
Throughout the lunches on both of the days there were live demos of 3D printing, remote control devices as well as flying devices. But the students also got an opportunity to lunch in the impressive grounds of the 18th century estate.
On the second day the students were able to use Node-RED, linking hardware and software together to begin to allow for card reader to donate to their products, ready for the final ‘expo’ later on in the afternoon. Alongside this focus on the solution for the product they had created there was an opportunity to flex the logical reasoning skills in a ‘Murder Mystery’ style challenge and investigating the areas they could potentially follow with a meet and greet with female IBM employees.
Once the stalls had been set out the final ‘Expo’ begins, with teams anxiously waiting for potential clients (IBM staff and VIP guests) to view their hard work that is on display and, potentially, fund their ideas using the self-created, card based, hardware.
"I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to go on this trip to IBM. I got the chance to work with people I had never met before to overcome a problem given in our personas. My favourite aspect was the designing process because it gave me the chance to think of as many ideas as I could to create a piece of technology to overcome a problem. I would recommend this activity to anyone thinking of going in the future as it is a great way to boost confidence, make friends and learn more about career paths at IBM. This trip made me aware of how much I enjoy computing and putting that into my product ideas. It was also really interesting to talk and listen to people who work at IBM because it made me think more about what I could go on to doing in the future. I really appreciate that I had the opportunity to go on this trip."
-Katie
"I enjoyed my trip to IBM because it gave me an insight into a corporate company and what I could achieve in the future if I got great results in my GCSE's and A-Levels. Both days were highly interesting and very useful towards our I.T lessons as well as being able to combine working hard and a lot of fun. Something I feel that we could use effectively in our school in the future was the expo and the creating products. Something they could of improved on though was the length of time that we had to complete certain tasks."
-Josephine
"During the IBM trip I enjoyed the different activities we did in the lead up to our expo presentation using the post it notes. I enjoyed it because they helped to make a detailed plan of what our ideas where therefore after we could reflect on the work and colaborate with each other to find out which idea/ideas we would use (this way, we could get everyone to contribute and put their interesting and bonkers ideas forward).
The experience alone was extraordinary, let alone the beautiful work environment, gardens and employees. In-between our working sections, I loved doing the ice breakers, murder mystery and meeting the employees. It was an opportunity to connect with you chosen groups instead of just going with your friends from your school. This made it more like a proper working environment.
As well as introducing us to the different career paths we could go down to do with computing technology, it gave us an insight into what having a full time job would be like.
Thanks for the opportunity."
-Celia
"I really enjoyed my time at IBM as it gave me the chance to meet and work with new people who I might not have worked with before. This meant we could share our ideas and knowledge to help us with the challenges we faced over the two days. Furthermore it allowed me to learn new things about coding and the types of jobs at IMB and how it could benefit me in the future."
-Izzy
"My experience at IBM in the two days I visited, were eye opening and fun. I have learnt about different types of professions that I thought didn't even exist. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and would suggest the opportunity to anyone who is given the chance as well. Also, the diverse activities that took place were very fascinating, but at the same time we had to focus hard and work to a deadline. Which was exhilarating and felt like I actually had a job at IBM. I would absolutely recommend anyone to spend time at IBM as it broadened my understanding and inspired me to in the future apply for jobs that women can do not just men! Thank you for organising this event, I really enjoyed it!"
-Pippa
Owned by: GWT | Last Published: 09/07/2018 14:12:40 | Next Update: N/A
© Copyright 2024 Highcliffe School. All Rights Reserved.
Highcliffe School is part of HISP Multi Academy Trust. Registered in England & Wales Number: 07562918
