Designing for the Future: How First Principles Thinking is Changing the World
First principles thinking is the key to unlocking innovation! By breaking down problems into fundamental principles, we can develop new solutions and build a ge
Blog
31 posts
Virtual School Trip
While the country is in lockdown and many are forced to stay indoors and homeschool children, there are still many ways to explore and learn online. You could t
STEM Celebration Event with the Palladian Academy, Bath
To conclude British Science Week 2019, The Palladian Academy trust schools held a STEM celebration event over two days at Ralph Allen School, Bath. All the scho
Building a Mad Scientist's Vintage Lab
There are lots of kits available these days for the budding electronics engineer, but we thought it would be great fun to prototype a minature version the kind
Making a DIY Battery Using the Salt-Powered Robot Kit
As part of our science week activities we’ve been looking at a few green technology concepts. There are many great examples and we found the [Salt Powered Robot
Harry Potter Potions Lesson
For a recent Harry Potter birthday party, we wanted to take the narrative of the story and inject some fun STEM elements into the activities, so we set up our o
Workshop with Mufti Games - Taking Things Apart: A Case Study.
When we were asked to work with [Mufti Games](https://www.muftigames.co.uk/), a Bristol-based organisation which creates playful and memorable experiences for a
Kelly Stanford - Ventures into Sci-art
Hello, I’m Kelly Stanford, a 23 year-old Manchester-based artist who likes to explore novel ways of using the visual arts as a form of science communication. My
Building An Interactive Orchestra Diagram
We continue to work with junior members of the STEAMShip crew to help realise their creative ambitions. This project was a year 8 music homework assignment to c
Exploring Story Development: Writing stories for games
This is the first of a series of posts in which we'll look at different techniques of developing interactive stories. In this first post, we'll explore techniqu
How I got involved in STEAM. Dan Hulbert writes.
My journey began with a passion for all things music and music production. I play the guitar, piano and sing having played in many bands. I loved learning how t
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01: Variety Kit Unboxing & First Impressions
Nintendo changed the landscape of video games over a decade ago with the revolutionary Wii remote which came bundled with the Wii console. Never before had such
Why Every Parent Should Be Encouraging Their Child To Learn To Code
Coding essentially involves using languages to perform tasks, to communicate ideas and to express your motivations. More importantly, code is becoming the langu
Spy Day!
During the summer break, we planned a spy activity day to keep some of the younger Steamship crew occupied. The idea was to give them several challenges to comp
Sciencefest Workshop - Case Study
The Steamship team were recently invited to take part in Combe Down Primary school’s Sciencefest week. We were asked to deliver a workshop to a class of key sta
Don't Wake the Dragon! - Making and Coding with the BBC Micro:Bit
We recently held a 'making' activity day themed around dragons. Inspired by this topic we decided to explore some new ideas for using the BBC Micro:Bit creative
Steampunking the Spikenzie Labs Solder : Time Watch
I was excited to receive the original Solder: Time watch by [Spikenzie Labs](http://spikenzielabs.com/SpikenzieLabs/SolderTime.html) as a birthday present and I
A Paper Circuits Christmas Card Challenge
As a seasonal challenge I thought I would try to make a light-up Christmas card. I have documented the entire process and challenges I faced along the way. Why
Christmas STEAM toys roundup
STEM / STEAM are very popular terms at the moment and many toys are being labelled as STEAM toys, but how can you tell which ones will really inspire your littl
Fun with LED Glowies and Throwies
LED Glowies and Throwies are great little lights which you can use as building blocks for all kinds of STEAM projects. A simple LED Glowie consists of an LED an
Junior STEAMShip Challenge: How To Build Your Own Lego Fidget Spinner
We challenged one of our junior crew members to come up with some designs for fidget spinners made out of Lego pieces. Have you ever really wanted a fidget spin
Interactive Electro Dough Ice Cream Eating Monster
Electro dough is a great way to introduce lessons on circuits to younger learners. It is such a tactile way to get involved with building and engages the creati
Top 10 STEAM books for the Summer Holidays
With the summer holidays looming, many of us will be looking for ideas to keep the kids entertained for the next few weeks. We've put together a list of our fav
Slime Adventures
Has the slime craze reached your house yet, it certainly has in ours! Our eldest has been spending literally hours up in her room mixing and squishing, all our
Adventures with the BBC Microbit: Coding with Mu
The BBC Microbit is such a versatile entry point to programming and there are already some excellent resources that you can use to get going with it straight aw
First Lego League International Open Championship Bath UK 2017
From all across the world, teams of young people have gathered at the University of Bath, UK, to participate in the First Lego League International Open Champio
Drawbots - prototyping designs for new workshops
Drawbots are always a very popular introduction to robotics workshop idea so we've spent some time recently experimenting with various designs and techniques to
Synthesis with Light - Atari Punk Console/Forrest Mims PunkPac
I am starting to explore some simple soldering projects and developing a workflow from early ideas to a more useful art prototype. I have been avidly reading Fo
Prototyping with cardboard: Phenakistoscope
As a potential workshop to explore prototyping with cardboard, we have been investigating ways of building machines with cardboard as a material. Its a material
Steampunk Google Cardboard Viewer
Google Cardboard allows you to get a great VR experience on a real budget. But I wanted to try and build a steampunk prototype of the viewer which allows for be
GO! GO! Robo! - Lego Mindstorms Robotics Fun.
Some of the Steamship crew were very excited to take delivery of a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit a few weeks ago and have been getting to explore the amazing