Outside of our Mantle work, we had the chance to take part in the Worcestershire STEM challenge where we had to make a model including shelves and a moving robot to be added to a new  factory being built in Worcester. We loved using the Kinex kits and had great fun whilst learning how to make structures and how engineering helps a warehouse to run smoothly. 

Podcasters 

This term we worked as a team of Podcasters who were invited to Egypt to podcast about the opening of an amazing new museum. As Truth Seekers our podcasts aim to tell people the hidden, forgotten or unknown facts about events and we were keen to find out about the Egyptian people who did a lot of the work to uncover the tomb of Tutankhamen. 
 

We created picture representations of our podcaster studios in Worcestershire and put them together to make a plan of the whole building. We also looked at still life by Paul Cezanne,  Hilary Pecis and Hirasho Sato and used this as inspiration for our own still life art work which would be on display in the studios. 

Whilst finding out about he tombs in Egypt, we received an email from the sister of our client. She wondered if we were the right kind of people to help with a problem her uncle was having. 
 

Heba gave us a puzzle to solve which required trial and error and perseverance and eventually we put the pieces together to make an aerial photograph of the River Nile  flowing through Egypt to the delta and the Mediterranean Sea. 
She also tasked us to sort the true and false facts about the river - could we prove that we can find the truth in modern day situations and not just historical events? 

Heba showed us some photographs of her family on the River Nile - at a party on a cruiser boat, swimming in the water and her uncles fishing and farming. She told us that her uncles are worried about the future for their family as in Ethiopia they were planning to build a dam which would take away water from a Egypt. She asked if we would like to visit her uncle in Aswan - we could travel down the river to meet him. 
 

We had to decide how to travel and whether our bosses back in the UK would pay for this journey. It would take two days to arrive in Aswan and then we could return via road al lot faster after speaking to Heba’s uncle. 
 

After doing some research about the different boat options, we spoke to the captains of each and then completed our paperwork for the UK. 
 

We thought that Ethiopia might need the dam for clean water - but this wasn’t the case. However we were shocked that many children do not have access to clean water or toilets and we wanted to do something to help. Georgia Lily suggested we make and sell World Water day badges - similar to the Poppy Day idea. Mr Kieran agreed and so we did it! Over two days we raised £147 for water aid and are so proud to have been able to help. 
 

As we walked along the promenade of the River Nile in Luxor, we thought about what we might see, feel and think along the journey…

Our team travelling on the felucca boats were first to notice something strange on the River at Aswan - a dam! The owner of the boat took us to the visitor centre at The Aswan High Dam and we learned all about it. But why were Heba’s uncles against a dam in Ethiopia when Egypt already has dams on the river? We didn’t know what to think. 
 

Heba’s uncle explained the positive impact on the dam for fishing and farming in Egypt, but was worried this would change with a dam further south on the river. He had contacted people in Ethiopia, but was not happy with the response he received. Could we help get the real story out there for people? 

We would have to find out about the comments made in the letter and then decide. So we found out where the source of the Nile is and about its tributaries; we investigated evaporation and temperature and we compared the uses of the Nile in ancient and modern times. 

To help us out, Mr Kieran put us in contact with two teachers - Menna and Noura - he has worked with who live in Egypt. They spoke to us in real life via Teams and answered all of our questions about living in Egypt and about the River Nile. Even Menna’s children joined in! 
 

We created as podcast, as we had promised, telling people about the situation. 
 

We just about had time to visit Alexandria before leaving Egypt. We know now that Egypt is not just desert and has very busy towns and cities which look similar to other towns and cities around the world. 
We learned about the temperature and precipitation differences to London in the UK and overall we had learned a lot of new facts!