July Newsletter 2024
A huge bright and sunny ‘hello!’ to our lovely Love Tech community – could it be the sun has finally decided to SHINE?! And with that, let’s blaze into all the latest news and updates from #TeamLoveTech 😎
To begin…
Summer Open Day 2024 🌞
By the time you’re reading this, our annual Love Tech Summer Open Day will be all done and dusted for another year – and we hope our amazing young attendees had loads of fun 💫
As you can imagine, this has meant that July mostly went by in a blur of final preparations.
Love Tech would therefore love to say a massive THANK YOU to all our enthusiastic partners: Code Club, Young Engineers (IOM), Emma Crellin’s Fun Science Table, AI with Acclaim’s Chris Kissack, and of course, all our committee members and volunteers for supporting the event – it’s always very busy and exciting and we couldn’t do it without you😊
As well as this, it’s been really wonderful to see such strong support with 200 tickets booked and a sizeable waiting list. More thank yous are therefore due to everyone who returned tickets they couldn’t use, allowing us to recirculate them.
Doing so for our events means that children on our waiting lists are able to take part, and, crucially, with our events so well utilised, we’re able to keep them free for all our island’s children to potentially enjoy 🙌
Event photos will soon be up on our socials so do keep an eye out 📸
Lastly, but certainly not least, thank you too Manx National Heritage for allowing us use of the Island’s iconic Manx Museum, and Hansard Global PLC for such fabulous sponsorship 💥
And in other news… have you checked out this comp yet?🤔🔍
Young Nature Champion 2024 🌿
Because the Summer holidays still have a long way to go, so if you’re looking for inspirational things to do with the kids, Love Tech is super proud to be supporting UNESCO Biosphere IOM’s Young Nature Champion Competition that is running all the way until November 1st.
Aimed at anyone under 21, this comp is for all young creatives with a passion for nature. More info can be found here.
However, to help you along the way, keep an eye on our socials too.
This is because throughout the Summer holidays a few of our amazing Love Tech Mentors have had a quick head scratch and come up with some fun and interesting activities to springboard your kids’ imaginations into action – so stay tuned and GET THEM INVOLVED 😎
And… in other events and initiatives, let’s run, hop and sprint like a prize Olympian, over to… 🏃♀️
STEM Spark at Marown School 📚
Yes, we know school’s out 🌟 However, we still want to thank all the children and teachers at Marown School for taking part in our PwC Isle of Man sponsored, STEM Spark initiative last term.
As well as a bunch of yet more FREE books for their school library, the school opted for a health and body-related assembly – led by our fabulous mentor, Ruth Cooil, of Ruth Cooil Physiotherapy, and a VR headset, year 5 workshop. This was separately facilitated by Love Tech committee member, Clare Pettit.
Want to know what they got up to? Here’s what Ruth had to say about her experience…
“I recently had a fantastic time delivering an all-school assembly at Marown Primary School all about being healthy and the body! We had lots of questions (including from the teachers!) and the children received prizes of an apple or a mini chocolate bar. During the assembly, we looked at what we should have on our plate and why, how much sleep we need, what affects this and how it can be improved. As well as this, we passed around models of the different joints of the body and finished off with four children completing a star jump challenge!” Ruth Cooil.
And here’s our feedback from Clare ☺️
“Using the Quest VR headset and ISS Mission app, each child got to experience a 10-15 minute space walk. This is a fantastic way to integrate VR into the curriculum as an example of exactly how technology can be used to enhance learning. It was great fun all around and the children were thoroughly engaged, supporting and navigating each other through the experience whilst they took turns.” Clare Pettit.
Well done all round – and to Marown for being so welcoming.
If you’re a primary school teacher on the Island, you can find out more about STEM Spark here, and we look forward to your school being signed up in the new term!
Next up…
Let’s welcome July’s Mentor of the Month: Dr. Rachel Glover 🌟
This month Love Tech were thrilled to feature Dr. Rachel Glover, an exceptionally inspirational scientist and specialist in Microbiology, Genomics, Biosurveillance, and Biomonitoring.
To give you a little about Rachel’s background, she studied at St Ninian’s before heading off to Uni where she graduated with a degree in Microbiology in 2004.
After this Rachel worked as a molecular biologist for the UK government. Next, over the course of a decade and a half, and after a few promotions, she was lucky enough to complete an MSc and a PhD alongside her job. Here’s what Rachel shared with us:
“I returned to the Isle of Man in 2017 and took the risk to set up Taxa Genomics… Seven years later my company is still here and it’s been an incredible rollercoaster ride. I’ve learned so many new skills and my work during the COVID pandemic to set up the Island’s COVID testing laboratory is the proudest moment of my scientific career to date.”
Thank you so much Rachel!
And lastly for July… please do remember to…
Stay Connected
We had a few people sad to miss out on tickets for our Summer Open Day so please please do remember to SIGN UP TO OUR MAILING LIST 💥 That way you can be sure to never miss out on an event again.
And, if you’re a woman working in STEM in the Isle of Man, if you’d love to join an award-winning charity to MAKE AN IMPACT, please get in touch: contact@lovetech.im. Our Mentor scheme is in an exciting period of growth and a great place to share your skills and connect with others.
That’s all for now! Stay tuned and stay STEM-curious 😊