RI STEM Masterclass: Modelling Forest Fires (a free workshop for Year 10s and Year 11s)

Newham College London is delighted to host a series of FREE Royal Institution (RI) STEM masterclasses. Aimed at Year 10s and Year 11s these unique, hands-on sessions are designed to nurture curiosity, build confidence and inspire them to continue STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) in the future.

Students who attend these sessions will explore real-world STEM challenges led by experts and gain valuable insights into future education and career opportunities – and students who attend will receive a certificate of participation from the RI.

Models are useful tools that enable us to describe the real world and predict many things like the weather, population dynamics, the spreading of disease, the impact of an earthquake, and many more. In this session, the students are introduced to cellular automata: mathematical models composed of grids of cells that evolve over time, according to simple rules based on the states of neighbouring cells.

Students will use cellular automata to model forest fires on paper grids, first using a given set of simple probabilities to simulate basic weather conditions, following which they can construct their own set of logical rules to change the model and make it their own!

(Please note one Parent/Carer per student can accompany a student at each session. Our onsite coffee shop will be open for parents/carers accompanying a young person and who wish to wait on site during the event).