Ada Lovelace Day
An event celebrating and celebrating women and girls in STEM in honour of local Nottinghamshire legend Ada Lovelace
Ignite! has worked with Pioneer Group every year since 2018 to deliver an event celebrating Ada Lovelace Day. Every October, we invite Key Stage 3 girls from Nottinghamshire secondary schools to MediCity and Key Stage 2 pupils from Sneinton primary schools to BioCity, where they take part in hands on activities, run by inspiring scientists who are based at the two sites and work in the local STEM industry.
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At our 2024 event, the number of pupils who responded ‘yes’ to ‘I want to be a scientist when I’m older’ increased by 52% for secondary pupils and 45% for primary pupils after their experience of the day.
2024
Pupils from 9 secondary schools took part in hands-on workshops at MediCity, with activities led by Freenome Ltd, Pipeline Organics, Bio 4, Locate Bio, Porterhouse Medical, Agility Life Sciences, Trelleborg, University of Nottingham, Spark STEM, Leicester EBP and I Belong.
Pupils from 2 primary schools and one alternative provision setting took part in hands-on activities at BioCity, with activities led by HGF, Reach, Worn Again and I Belong.
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Pioneer Group sites across the UK also ran their own events, which the Ignite! team consulted on.
2023
Pupils from 10 secondary schools took part in hands-on workshops at MediCity, with activities led by Freenome Ltd, NuVision, Locate Bio, Porterhouse Medical, Agility Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Wollaton Hall and a keynote speech from Dr Lisa Thomas.
Pupils from 3 primary schools took part in hands-on activities at BioCity, with activities led by HGF, Exonate, Sygnature Discovery, Myconeos and the Environment Agency.
Pioneer Group sites across the UK also ran their own events, which the Ignite! team consulted on.
2022
Pupils from 6 secondary schools took part in hands-on workshops a MediCity, with activities led by NuVision, Locate Bio, Porterhouse Medical, Oncimmune, Agility Life Sciences and Charnwood Molecular and a keynote speech from Dr Susannah Lydon.
2020 and 2021
Pupils from 5 and 6 secondary schools took part in online sessions, where they took part in Q&A sessions with women scientists joining us from across the UK.
2019
Pupils from 6 secondary schools took part in hands-on workshops at MediCity, with activities led by Twycross Zoo, Nottingham Trent University, The Army, Rolls Royce and DEBP.
2018
Pupils from 3 secondary schools took part in hands-on activities and listened to speakers at BioCity, with activities led by Nottingham Trent University.