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Millennium Point is dedicated to the growth and enhancement of STEM education in Birmingham and the West Midlands. We achieve this through impactful projects such as our fully funded STEM scholarship and STEM grant funding, events, support initiatives and so much more. With British Science Week upon us, we’re here to celebrate with 3 activities you can do with your family at home to celebrate.

What’s British Science Week?
British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) that takes place annually around March. This year British Science Week started on 5th March and will continue until this Sunday (14th March) with the theme “Innovating for the Future”. Across the UK schools, parents, teachers and organisations are taking part in a myriad of activities that engage communities in STEM, highlight the importance of STEM in our daily lives and celebrate the achievements and diversity of STEM leaders. You can get involved with activities or events that are already planned via the official website or organise one yourself. The activities in the list below have all been chosen from the free activity packs that are available on their website here.

Crunchy Architecture You Can Eat – (Activity for under 5s)

This activity uses melted chocolate as cement and a variety of different biscuits to get your child to construct buildings or structures which you can all then eat. To start, melt your chocolate in a bowl, either in the microwave or in a bowl on top of a pan of boiling water. Once melted use the chocolate to stick biscuits together to make buildings and structures. When the kids are done with the activity they can then eat their creations. This activity takes about 30 minutes overall. The video below provides a great demonstration of the activity.

(Video Credit: Dennis Fresto)

Kit list

Different shaped biscuits/and or wafers and crackers
Dark chocolate
Bowl, water and saucepan
Baking paper
Hob/Microwave

What does this teach?
This activity teaches children about architectural design – chiefly about how materials can be combined, shaped and measured to form structures. It teaches them to think creatively and innovatively with tools at their disposal. What’s more, you can expand this activity to emphasise the STEM elements by getting them to plan out what they want to make, cut biscuits to size and shape and then reflect on whether the finished product changed from the initial design and why.

This activity is an example of sensory learning where children link their learning to memorable activities and experiences – the messier the better! Sensory learning is a crucial part of early years development as it effectively engages children in activities that activate their brain. This allows them to break down difficult topics, like architectural design, into concepts they can comprehend. They will then be able to refer back to what they’ve learned because they can recall the experience of the activity.

Build a working Waterwheel – (Activity for over 5s)

In this activity, you build a working waterwheel. Use a plate to draw and cut out two circles in a thick card or plasticard to make the wheels of your waterwheel. Find the centre of each wheel and cut a smaller hole wide enough to fit a pencil or wooden doweling. Tape or staple the cups to one of the wheels put the second wheel on top to sandwich the cups and secure by pushing the wooden spoke/pencil through the hole in the centre of both. You can now experiment with dropping water from different heights or with greater force to see how it affects the speed of the weel. You determine the speed of the wheel by marking a point on the wheel and counting the number of rotations within 30 seconds.

(Video credit: Two-Point-Four)

Kit List

Thick card or plasticard
Pen/Pencil
Plate (to use as a template)
Wooden Doweling or a pencil (to spin the wheel)
Disposable cups (choose recyclable!)
Scissors
Adhesive
Bottled water/hose or equivalent to dropping water
Bucket / Washing up bowl (or be outside)

What does this teach?
This experiment has a lot to teach about forces and energy in a fun and engaging way. They will learn about how height, gravity and force impact the wheel by dropping water at different heights and with different degrees of force. This is also a great segway into discussing sustainable energy, like the electricity in your house and how these types of mechanism can be used to create sustainable energy. The waterwheel was used historically to power machinery in Victorian mills, using the force of the water cascading down to generate push and pull forces. Now, a similar wheel mechanism is used to generate sustainable electricity with methods like wind and wave power.

Making hot ice – (Activity for over 5s)

In this activity you will create a substance that is liquid at room temperature and but when disturbed will immediately crystallise to form something known as “hot ice”. This is a really fun experiment that doesn’t require a lot to do but has a real “wow” factor when you see the liquid immediately crystalise. To do it, slowly add 3-4 tablespoons of baking powder to 1 litre of clear vinegar and then leave to boil for 30 minutes. When you see a crust starts to form (white stuff known as sodium acetate anhydrous), scoop a bit out and save then take the liquid off the heat and transfer to a container and cover. Transfer to an ice bath or fridge for 15 minutes or until it drops below room temperature. Once cooled take the lid off, add the sodium acetate anhydrous (white stuff you collected earlier) and watch as the liquid crystalises. When you touch it, it will feel hot, not cold – hence hot ice!

(video credit: Home Science)

Kit List

1 litre clear (not malt) vinegar
4 tbsp baking soda
Steel saucepan
Plastic container
Bucket and ice (if doing an ice bath)

What does this teach?
This activity teaches children about chemical states and reactions. Most substances have a freezing point, where the molecules rearrange from a liquid into a solid or crystal arrangement. Sodium acetate trihydrate, or hot ice, is a supercool liquid, which means even though it’s a liquid at room temperature, the molecules will rearrange into solid form when disturbed (by adding sodium acetate). As the sodium acetate is introduced, the liquid will begin to crystallise and after a few seconds the entire liquid will ‘freeze’. However, if you touch it, the substance will feel hot, not cold, because the process of crystallisation is exothermic. That means that heat is given off, so the liquid turns into a solid.

That’s it for our 3 STEM Activities to Celebrate British Science Week. The activities in the list below have all been chosen from the free activity packs that are available on their website here. We hope you enjoy British Science Week and don’t forget to share your results with us on social media by tagging @millenniumpoint!

Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.

Every year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. Applications are now open for 2021. Meadows Primary School and Resource Base received a grant in 2020 to transform dilapidated school grounds into an engaging outdoor science area. This is their story.

Who’s running the project?
The Meadows Primary School and Resource Base is a three-form entry primary school in Northfield, Birmingham. The children are aged between four and 11 years with 45% of the pupils being disadvantaged children who receive free school meals and grow up in challenging circumstances. Additionally, 24% of children have Special Educational Needs (SEN) requiring specialist supported learning.

What’s it all about?
The existing woodland area around the school has become run down and unusable due to limited school funding. Apart from a small playground, there are no outdoor areas, such as playing fields, other than this dilapidated area. The grant from Millennium Point Charitable Trust will fund the development of a pond and wildlife area within the school grounds. The objective is to enable the children to immerse themselves in the local environment while learning about biological and life sciences outside of the traditional classroom environment. This will prove especially important for those children with learning difficulties, enabling the school to provide more dynamic lessons using the external spaces to better suit their learning needs. The funds will also help pay for den building kits, wellington boots and all-in-ones for the children – an outlay that many families simply can’t afford.

Who will benefit?
This project will benefit the whole school, including the children in the resource base (which is integrated within the mainstream school), who have speech and language disorders. They sometimes have additional needs such as dyslexia, autism, ADHD, physical difficulties, sensory impairments or social and emotional development.

What they said:
Alex Morris, the school’s science coordinator: “Science is a major part of what we do in every single curriculum and year group, and this project will have a huge impact on the children in our care. Due to the parents’ financial constraints, the children have very limited experiences of habitats beyond their own street. They don’t experience what a lot of children do, like walks in the countryside.

“The grant will enable the children to develop their vocabulary of plants and animals beyond the classroom walls. Developing this project would benefit every year group and vastly impact the children’s progress and attainment.

“Due to home circumstances, many children within the school have mental health problems, so they need a great deal of emotional support, and providing an area for calm reflection when they feel overwhelmed would vastly benefit the children in our care.

“We also hope this project will inspire and encourage the traditionally marginalised groups, such as the children in our resource base, to pursue STEM careers in the future; opening up a range of possibilities and develop the children’s confidence to pursue these careers in the future.”

When’s it all happening?
It is hoped that the wildlife area will be ready in Spring 2021; the pool will be created by the Summer, pandemic restrictions pending.

Can grant funding unlock your STEM project?
There’s still time to apply for funding from the Millennium Point Charitable trust this year. Applications must be submitted by 5 pm on 30th November 2020. To apply for the Millennium Point Charitable Trust Small Grants programme 2021, visit: www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/grants/apply

We’re delighted to share that Shirley Golf Club has donated a golf buggy to assist patients attending the mass vaccination centre at Millennium Point.

Our landmark venue opened its doors on Monday 11th January as the first NHS mass vaccination site in Birmingham. The centre is run by the NHS in Birmingham and Solihull as part of the regions Covid-19 vaccination programme, the largest vaccination programme ever, and plays a vital role in protecting lives, and in supporting the recovery of our region.

The golf buggy has been donated to assist the elderly and more vulnerable patients attending vaccinations. At the time of writing only those aged 64 and over, people that are “moderate to high risk” and key workers are eligible for the vaccine. The buggy has been a big hit with attendees, with Shirley Golf Club reporting many of their own members spotting it on their visit. We’re really grateful for the donation and the impact it has made for the more vulnerable – and the fun they get riding it!

Shirley Golf Club is a popular golfing destination in the West Midlands. The club is situated within Blythe Valley on the outskirts of South Birmingham and offers golfers a luscious open space bordered by fields and natural woodlands. Though they have been closed throughout the pandemic, they are now taking bookings for 2021. For further information please visit their website.

Is Millennium Point Accessible?
Millennium Point has several entrances, all of which are accessible for wheelchairs and those with walking aids. All zones within the building where vaccinations are taking place have access to lifts and escalators for those who need them. Staff and volunteers, including St John’s Ambulance, are positioned at all entrances to the building who assist vulnerable visitors or provide wheelchairs to those who need them. Additionally, Birmingham City Council has gifted free use of the multi-storey car park based on Cardigan street, to enable NHS patients attending their vaccination appointments to park completely free of charge. There are disabled parking bays located on the ground floor of the multi-story car park available for use. It is then approximately 80 meters (262 ft) from the car park to the vaccination centre within Millennium Point, which is the equivalent of a 2-minute walk.

For more information on NHS mass vaccination centre at Millennium Point, please visit our dedicated page.

Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands. Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint.

The deadline to apply for our life-changing scholarship at Birmingham City University ends on Sunday.

We’ve partnered with Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, to fully fund tuition fees in one of 20 different courses across computing, digital technology, engineering and the built environment. Now in its seventh year, the Millennium Point Trust Scholarship has already funded six young people from the region through their degrees at Birmingham City University – which originally started as the Young Innovator Prize in 2015.

How do you apply?
The competition is open to applicants aged 17 and over within the West Midlands Combined Authority, who are looking to start a qualifying degree in September 2021.

To apply, they need to download and complete this quick and easy application form from our website by answering four questions.

They will then submit their completed form to [email protected] by Sunday 28th February 2021. We will invite five applicants to a final assessment day in April 2021 before deciding a winner.

Who can apply?
Applications are only being accepted from students living in the West Midlands Combined Authority, who cannot already have or currently be studying an undergraduate degree. The scholarship only applies to a qualifying course at Birmingham City University. For further information, check out the rules section.

Why should you apply?
All finalists will benefit from the programme with opportunities that can kick start their career in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM). One person will get a fully funded degree – which means they won’t pay their undergraduate tuition fees which are upward f £27,000.

All finalists receive skills development and training to build their confidence before the live final. Following the competition, they can become an alumnus of the programme and benefit from a range of opportunities such as mentoring, work placements and networking.

Why do we do this?
Birmingham and the West Midlands is teeming with unfettered STEM talent. Now, more than ever, young people need our support and encouragement for them to unlock their potential. The scholarship is one of several ways we, as a charitable trust, support the growth of STEM industries in the region and do our bit to secure the future and economic growth of an area and a community that has been designated the largest hub for science and innovation outside of London. For more information on how you can get involved please visit this page.

Get started
If you or someone you know is interested, head over to millenniumpoint.org.uk/scholarship and start the application. Deadline for applications is Sunday 28th February 2021.

Every year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust Small Grants programme gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. Here is the story of Aston Villa Foundation who received funding from Millennium Point in 2020.

Who’s running the project?
The Aston Villa Foundation is a registered charity that delivers the community and social responsibility work of Aston Villa Football Club. With a mission of ‘Working Together to Enrich Lives’, the foundation and its partners work with people from a variety of backgrounds in Birmingham as well as supporting the wider ‘Aston Villa family’ through schools, football in the community, disability, health and wellbeing, education, interventions and community relations.

What’s it all about?
STEM Stars will see the development of a new STEM programme in six schools, all within the targeted constituencies of Erdington, Perry Barr and Ladywood (approximately a three-mile radius of Villa Park). The funding will be used to purchase a Sphero robot package (which includes 15 x robots, 10 x tablets and 6 x small pitches) that uses football to engage young people in coding. The money will also pay for training and some of the staff delivery.

Using code, the robots can perform speciﬁc functions – such as motion and direction, colour and light, and sensor-controlled reactions, allowing students to be creative with their programs. Teachers and students can use the robots for STEM learning through activities such as navigating a maze, painting, mimicking the Solar System or swimming across water. The Aston Villa Foundation staff will create football-related tasks and work with the schoolchildren to programme the robots to recreate Villa goals from the current Premier League season.

STEM Stars is an extension of the PL Primary Stars education programme which is already delivered by the Aston Villa Foundation to schools in Perry Barr, Erdington and Ladywood. However, none of the schools currently engage in STEM activities. The schools targeted in the STEM Stars project have a high percentage of BAME and high levels of income deprivation (top 3% nationally) and education deprivation (top 8%).

Who will benefit?
The funding will help deliver 60 free days of activities at six primary schools across a school term (10 x 1 day blocks). The focus years for the sessions will be Years 4, 5 and 6, benefitting around 400 pupils in total. Exact numbers still to be determined and are COVID-19 dependent.

What they said:
Paul Hughes, Aston Villa Foundation Schools Manager, commented: “The funding will allow us to be innovative with our provision in schools and make a difference within the local community by equipping the next generations with potential skill sets of the future and looking positively ahead in an ever-evolving technological world.

“It will provide us with a further opportunity to have a positive impact on children and schools, by enriching their curriculums through this unique programme to experience, learn and develop through STEM, with the power of football and the club as a key instigator to unlocking learning potential.”

When’s it all happening?
It is hoped the project will then be rolled out to the six schools over three academic terms from January 2021.

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point
Educators, Charities and Not-for-Profits within the West Midlands Combined Authority can apply for up to £20,000 from Millennium Point to fund their STEM activity. For more information on how to access this funding please visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/grants

Our landmark venue now enters it’s second month as an NHS mass vaccination centre in Birmingham. We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done to support the NHS in delivering the vaccination rollout across the midlands.

Our chief executive officer Abbie Vlahakis and Chamber chief executive Paul Faulkner discussed how our venue became the first Covid-19 mass vaccination centre to operate in the Midlands. You can watch the interview in full by clicking below.

For information about receiving vaccinations in Birmingham and Solihull please visit www.birminghamandsolihullcovidvaccine.nhs.uk/ or call 119

At Millennium Point, we are offering a fully paid undergraduate degree for one student to join Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment as we look to boost STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning across the West Midlands. The deadline for applications for our fully funded degree ends at midnight on 28th February.

Here, in this blog, we take a look at the story of Shilpa Joy. Shilpa graduated from the same faculty in which we are offering our fully funded undergraduate scholarship – Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, with a degree in Automotive Engineering course 2016. She went on to work at Jaguar Land Rover as a Prototype Build Engineer.

A day in the life at JLR

Who is Shilpa Joy?

Former Automotive student Shilpa Joy worked diligently while studying but also found time to be involved in extra-curricular activities within the university. She chose to study Automotive Engineering, as there were so few girls on the course and she wanted to prove that girls have nothing to shy away from.

Shilpa didn’t know exactly what career role she wanted but knew she wanted to do something with cars and that she needed to gain experience before pinpointing a specific area in the automotive industry to specialise in.

What did she do with her degree?

After graduation, Shilpa went on to become a Prototype Build Engineer in charge of three build zones at the start of the assembly line at Jaguar Land Rover. This role is a crucial part of vehicle production, directly responsible for innovation and improving build quality by combining new content with existing vehicles to create prototype properties suitable for test and development for new vehicles.

She said: “Any delay in my zones would impact the completion and delivery of that particular vehicle to the customer. I face a variety of challenges on a day to day basis and finding solutions to them aren’t always quick or easy. University taught me to always have a five-year plan. I cannot tell you how important this turned out to be for me. My five-year plan encourages and pushes me to the next step in my career and each time I look at it, it reminds me to stay on track and reassures me why I am doing what I am doing.”

Unlock your future with a fully funded degree
Your journey can start like Shilpa’s at Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment and you won’t have to pay tuition fees. We are offering a fully-funded undergraduate degree – that’s over £27,000 you will never have to pay back – to study one of over 20 courses including automotive engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and construction management.

The application form is quick, easy and could be the start of a life-changing opportunity. Deadline for applications is 28th February 2021, for further information or to apply please visit www.millenniumpoiint.org.uk/scholarship

The deadline for our life-changing fully funded undergraduate scholarship at Birmingham City University has been extended to 28th February 2021

Each year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust fully fund an undergraduate degree at Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, which covers over 20 different courses across computing, digital technology, engineering and the built environment. Now in its seventh year, the Millennium Point Trust Scholarship has already funded six young people from the region through their degrees at Birmingham City University.

Young people in education are among those most impacted over the past 12 months by the pandemic causing uncertainty and anxiety over final grades and their future. This has caused a dramatic increase in young people taking to time to carefully consider their futures. After listening closely to the anxieties of young people and feedback from schools and colleges across the region, we have taken the decision to extend the deadline for applications to our life-changing fully funded scholarship from the end of January to 28th February 2021.

The objective of the Millennium Point Scholarship, and the Millennium Point Charitable Trust, is to give young people the support and encouragement they need to unlock their future in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). The offer of a fully-funded undergraduate degree is more appealing than ever to young people in the region with value for money being a key driver in applying to uni. With the decision to extend the deadline of the scholarship project this year by four weeks, we are hoping to offer respite and reassurance to students by giving them extra time to apply for this unmissable opportunity to have their tuition fees paid for.

The competition is open to applicants aged 17 and over within the West Midlands Combined Authority, who are looking to start a qualifying degree in September 2021. To apply, they need to download and complete our quick and easy application form from our website by answering four questions. They will then submit their completed form to [email protected] by Sunday 28th February 2021. We will invite five applicants to a final assessment day in April 2021 before deciding a winner.

Why apply?
If you win you we’ll pay your tuition fees. If you make it to the shortlist you get a range of benefits and support that develop your core skills and create opportunities to help you kick start your career in science, technology, engineering and maths. You have nothing to lose by applying.

Get started
If you or someone you know is interested, head over to millenniumpoint.org.uk/scholarship to download the application form before midnight on 28th February 2021.

The Millennium Point Charitable Trust has joined the Connect_In campaign to help the hundreds of families who have fallen victim to ‘digital poverty’, by not only donating refurbished laptops but acting as a drop-off and collection point for donations.

What is the Campaign?

Launched by The Child Poverty Action Forum and supported by Wowdot CIC, the Connect_In campaign aims to ensure the most disadvantaged families are receiving the help that they need with homeschooling during the pandemic, in the form of laptops and a stable internet connection.

Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium Point, commented: “Education and STEM are in the trust’s DNA, so it was clear to us that we had to get involved with the Connect_In campaign.

“It’s essential that every child has access to education and digital provision during the pandemic, to give everyone the same life chances and to prevent the “huge gap” between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and their peers. We’ll not only be serving as a hub for drop-off and collection of laptops, but we’re committed to donating thousands of laptops to disadvantaged local school children too.”

Ongoing support for STEM in the region

Despite a year rocked by covid-19, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust amassed multi-millions in contributions and donations in 2020 as part of its mission to provide continued support for the region’s STEM sector; this has included funding more than 40 projects in the form of small grants to fund STEM-related projects in the region; working with Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and The Built Environment to offer a free undergraduate degree through the Millennium Point Scholarship, with applications for the seventh year is open now; an annual donation to ThinkTank Science Museum and rent reductions for STEM tenants.

Abbie comments: “This is another example of our continued investment in STEM-related organisations, projects and initiatives that benefit Birmingham and the wider region, which has totalled more than £25m over the past six years.”

Donated laptops can be dropped off at Millennium Point reception on Level 0; to find out more about the campaign, go to https://wow-group.co.uk/wowdot/

IMage caption (left to right): Cas Majid (CEO of WOW Group), Abbie Vlahakis (Millennium Point CEO) and Bevil Williams (Managing Director at Repc Ltd) delivering laptops and equipment to Highfields School in Saltley

Press enquiries please contact Jon Perks or Allyson Loots at CAB Campaign – [email protected] / [email protected]

Here, in this blog, we take a look at the story of Cal Henderson, Chief Technology Officer at Slack. Cal graduated from the same faculty in which we are offering a fully-funded scholarship – Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, with a degree in software engineering in 2002 (equivalent to a computer science degree today).

Who is Cal Henderson?
Cal was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University in recognition of his contribution to the technology field. After graduating from the University in 2002 with a degree in Software Engineering, Cal jas enjoyed an illustrious career in the tech industry since graduating. In 2006, Cal wrote the best-selling book “Building Scalable Websites” and is currently working on a second edition. In his spare time, he continues to publish articles on web application development and contribute to open source projects. He is colour blind and has worked on applications to make the web more accessible for people with the condition.

He co-founded software company Slack in 2013, with three colleagues with their creation going on to be a major hit with users. Slack is a collaboration hub for teams at work, which brings together the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use. Boasting more than 10 million users, the company recently made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange earning an estimated valuation of over $17 billion.

Cal was named as Birmingham City University’s Alumni of the Year in 2016 in recognition of his achievements and is now recognised with the University’s highest honorary accolade. On receiving the accolade, Henderson commented: “When I was a kid and thought I could one day work at Microsoft – it never occurred to me that I could build a company that might become the next Microsoft. Silicon Valley is a long way from Birmingham, and a university education opens up a world of possibilities.”

“I now lead a team of almost 100 engineers building a variety of applications and distributed systems that a million people rely on every day. While I spend most of my time these days in meetings rather than a text editor, the engineering knowledge and understanding that I gained at university is crucial for running an engineering organisation.”

Unlock your future with a fully funded degree
Your journey can start like Cal’s at Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment and you won’t have to pay tuition fees. We are offering a fully-funded undergraduate degree – that’s over £27,000 you will never have to pay back – to study one of over 20 courses including computer science, video games design, computer forensics and cybersecurity.