1. Lighting Journal June 2014
S
temnet (the Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics
Network) is an organisation
set up to promote Stem subjects in
schools and with young people in
general. To do this it has enlisted
more than 26,000 Stem ambassadors,
volunteers involved professionally
within these disciplines, to provide a
resource for schools and educational
events, raising awareness of how
valuable, interesting and rewarding
these subjects and careers can be.
Recently a number of ILP members
have signed up and here three of
us share our experiences in the
classroom. The ILP is keen to promote
the Stemnet programme and is looking
at ways to support fellow professionals
who want to become involved.
Hopefully these examples will inspire
others to take part.
Graham Festenstein
Graham Festenstein Lighting
Design
I have always been interested in
promoting lighting through education
but until now this has been limited
to undergraduate students and
adults. The idea of becoming a Stem
ambassador, however, really appealed
to me, as my own experience at
school left a lot to be desired in terms
of understanding the opportunities
and careers in design, architecture,
engineering and other technical
subjects. This was obviously some
time ago, but as my daughter has
progressed through the school system
it has become clear that although
there has been some progress, things
have not really changed as much as I
would have hoped.
The root cause of this, in my
opinion, is not a lack of desire
among teachers to promote these
sort of careers, but in fact a lack of
26 Stem programme
Graham Festenstein briefly explains the Stemnet
programme and, together with Jonathan Green
and Mark Cooper, gives a flavour of what it’s
like to pass on knowledge to young children
Passing
torchthe

2. Stem programme 27
Lighting Journal June 2014
understanding among the teachers
themselves, of the varied and
specialist careers that studying
Stem subjects can open up for
young people. In this way the Stem
ambassador programme not only
supports teachers, but also educates
them in the more specialist or
seemingly obscure disciplines that
many of us inhabit.
Recently I took part in an event
at the Observatory Science Centre
in Herstmonceux, East Sussex.
This was aimed at KS3 students,
of which around 250 attended
throughout the day. I must admit
to being somewhat nervous before
the event as working with children,
as I previously mentioned, was not
something I had much experience
with. At the beginning of the session
I did find it difficult, and consequently
had to adjust my method of delivery
significantly, to adapt to what I found to
be very attentive and interested young
people, many of whom were much
more engaged than I had imagined
they would be, and who asked many
intelligent and pertinent questions.
All in all I found the day extremely
rewarding and I am sure many of the
children went away with knowledge
that otherwise they would have been
unlikely to have gained elsewhere. The
range of other activities was extremely
interesting too; from interactive virtual
reality (demonstrating the vision of
a bee as it searched for flowers), a
‘banana piano’ (with a keyboard of
real bananas) through to software-
controlled robot Lego cars.
The activity I chose invoved a
range of luminaires from tiny 1W LEDs
through to 3000lm light engines, fibre
optics and RGB. I also took a range
of lamps showing the development of
light sources, from the tungsten lamp,
through to LED, and the diversity of
sources in between. Along with these
I had various reflectors, lenses, filters,
ribbed glass, shot-blasted glass and
dichroics, all of which the children
could play and experiment with (we
were lucky with this event in that it was
not in a school and could consequently
be a hands-on activity).
The idea behind all of this was to
demonstrate the amazing diversity
of skills that go into lighting; from
the physicists and chemists who
develop the light sources and filters,
the engineers and product designers
who develop the lamps themselves
and then the luminaires, through to
the designers who put these into use
on buildings, roads and architectural
spaces. Along the way I could touch
on the electrical engineers, architects
and other professionals involved in the
delivery of construction projects, and
even the biologists who look at the
impact of lighting on our physiology
and psychology.
Using scheme photographs and
images, my final aim was to show how
science and technology contributes to
the creativity of design in architecture
and urban design, something that is
far from the day-to-day experience of
the average teenager.
Jonathan Green
Lighting sales engineer, ERIKS
When I was a child at school learning
about right-angled triangles, the
Pythagoras theory and trigonometry,
I asked myself, ‘When am I ever going
to use this in my life?’ This same
question seems to be the mantra
of all young students and as a
Stem ambassador I get the chance
to show how it is used in lighting to
calculate the point illuminance or
intensity values.
I have given practical presentations
of the necessity for trigonometry
in lighting at various schools in
Nottinghamshire to pupils ranging
from 13-16 years. Each time I mention
the ‘T’ word I smile inwardly as an
audible groan escapes from the
mouths of 25 young students who
would rather do anything else than
sit through an hour of opposites,
adjacents and hypotenuses.
However, once the lesson unfolds
and the use of trigonometry becomes
clearer, understanding takes over.
Where there were once lost students
trying to figure out which element of
Sohcahtoa to use, now in their place
are attentive students with light bulbs
above their heads. This in itself has
given me pride, that I have helped
to provide a better understanding of
probably one of the most dreaded
subjects in school.
In addition to undertaking these
local classes, I had the honour of
being a careers specialist at this
year’s Big Bang Show at the NEC,
Birmingham. This involved a gruelling
but rewarding three days of being
interviewed by young scientists,
engineers and mathematicians aged
between eight and 16.
Once the obvious question of
‘How much do you get paid?’ was
out of the way, I was both surprised
and impressed to find that there
were some very interesting questions
asked about lighting and how it all
worked. Obviously it’s a mammoth
subject to cover within the allotted five
minutes each group was given, but I
was happy to address any issues the
young engineers had, and thoroughly
enjoyed the short but very mature
conversations I had with each one.
A couple of times I even had the
chance to talk about the importance
Promoting Stem subjects: ‘It’s about encouraging the next generation to take our place’

3. 28 Stem programme
Lighting Journal June 2014
of professional registration and to tell
them that, even at my age, I am still
learning. All in all it was a thoroughly
enjoyable experience and I think I
learned as much as my young visitors.
During my time giving
presentations and taking part in
events, I have come to realise that
being a Stem ambassador is much
more than just contributing towards
my annual CPD requirement. It’s
about encouraging the next generation
to take our place. To teach and nurture
budding engineers. But, above all,
to instill confidence and show that
we are the professionals that they
could be – the future us.
Mark Cooper
National sales manager public
realm, iGuzzini
Senior vice president, ILP
I have always been interested in
education and training; I have a
passion for lighting and have never
understood why some people insist on
trying to make this industry a mystery.
I like to talk to people about my
career and often find that most people
don’t even know that such things as a
lighting engineer or lighting designer
exist, or have any idea as to what
we do. Furthermore they certainly
don’t understand that this job is an
amazing mix of science, technology,
engineering, mathematics and art.
When my youngest daughter’s
school sent home details of science
week, I approached the science
teacher and asked her if I could help.
We sat down after I explained what I
did for a living and she was so grateful
for the help. I had a few ideas as what
we could do for a group of seven to
nine-year-olds, but quickly my idea
of doing something in a classroom for
one class mushroomed into a whole
day of teaching for the whole year
group – not only that but I was to kick
off their science week.
We spoke about the format for the
day, how the lessons and workshops
we discussed could be tied into the
rest of their events for the week,
and also the curriculum. Once I had
worked out what we could do during
the day, and what equipment I needed
to demonstrate things such as colour
mixing, creating rainbows and a ‘light
show’ at the end of the day, I went
and spoke to my company to beg
borrow and steal some fittings. They
were very good in allowing me to
use some of our own demonstration
materials, for colour temperature, for
instance, as well as lots of fittings,
lamps and LED samples.
I put together three presentations
and some basic lesson plans. These
comprised an initial introduction to
the whole year group, covering what
a lighting engineer does, some of the
projects I have been involved in and
what we were to learn through the day.
The second was a workshop, and the
final presentation of the day was in
front of the whole school, summing
up the day and demonstrating, with
the help of the children, a light show
in the school hall.
The whole day was very
interactive, with lots of hands-on
experience and use of multimedia,
ensuring the children had a chance to
learn for themselves – asking lots of
questions, working out for themselves
what was happening and then going
off to examine further materials within
the classrooms.
I felt that the day went well, and
the feedback from the school has been
great, but the acid test has been that
when I have taken my daughter back
into school, the children have all been
talking to me, asking more questions
and telling me how much they enjoyed
their day. I even got a special card
made by all of the children, with
comments in it, something I will hold
on to and value.
The other thing I will retain is the
sense of achievement I got, and the
enjoyment and encouragement I
received from seeing young children
inspired and enthusiastic about
science and maths. If you ever get
the chance to undertake this type of
teaching, do it, you will receive as
much as you give.
During my year as president,
one of my goals will be to create a
series of lesson plans, presentations
and workshops that can be used
by members throughout the UK
to assist their local schools. I also
want to create a process that allows
us to coordinate with Stem and
get more of our members joined
up as ambassadors.
From this, if we can just get a
few more young budding engineers
to think of a career in lighting, then
it would have been worth the effort.
But the benefits it will bring those
members involved, and the boost to
their enthusiasm for the industry we
work in, cannot be overestimated.
www.stemnet.org.uk
Feedback from the school
Dear Mark
Both the children and I got so much
out of your day and then we continued
throughout the week, extending and
investigating our learning. I know the
children got a lot of inspiration from
their day. A wonderful start to our
science week.
I have attached some photographs
the children took while working out
their investigation, some are very
beautiful and a rather amazing one
(they don’t know how they did it, they
saw a rainbow in the semi-circle and
tried to take a photo).

4. Finance 29
Lighting Journal June 2014
ImagescourtesyofPrimaryEngineer