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Inspiration Provided By Footwear Project

Our Year 7 and 8 students have been inspired to look at the science and history behind shoes as part of a cross-curricular STEM project. 

Our Year 7 and 8 students have been inspired to look at the science and history behind shoes as part of a cross-curricular STEM project.
The STEM project' Fab Forces', has been linked into students looking at the local boot and shoe industry that has historically been based in and around Kettering.
KSA Science teacher, Louise Warne has prepared a series of activities which have delivered in English, Maths and Science lessons.
The Activities have included; designing shoes for a specific sport or occasion, testing the friction force of different surfaces and shoes and calculating the pressure exerted by the body on the floor when wearing different styles of shoe.
As part of the project work, Science Project Manager Miss Louise Oliver arranged for Mr David Smith of SATRA, a research and testing company in Kettering for more than 100 years, to present to all our Year 7 and 8 students about the company and its work.
Mr Smith demonstrated a range of  interesting equipment such as a high speed camera, a thermal imaging camera and moveable model hands and feet that had been produced by a 3D printer.
All the students were very interested in his presentation and at the end of each talk there was time for a question and answer session, during which Mr Smith was quizzed on a wide range of questions.
Students asked;'What is the weirdest test you have done?' (the reply was testing boots in a tank of baked beans to see if they were suitable to be worn in a food preparation area) and careers questions about how Mr Smith got his job. 
Also as part of this project, some of Mr Smith’s colleagues from SATRA have been using 3D scanning equipment to take measurements of the students' feet.
The findings will be anonymously added to the SATRA database for their use when calculating average shoe sizes for different aged children.
Miss Oliver said: “Our students were so enthused by the talk that some are now working on posters summarising the key points of his talk and others have been inspired to design their own testing machines for shoes.”