INEOS Team UK's official charity launch new online STEM education platform

Britannia 1851 Graphic © INEOS Team UK

1851 Trust, INEOS Team UK's official charity, launch new online STEM education platform to further support remote learning as summer term begins.

With students across the country getting back to school work with the start of the Summer term, the 1851 Trust, INEOS TEAM UK's official charity, has launched a new online platform, the Pupil Portal, on STEM Crew, supported by INEOS, providing young people with direct access to their learning resources inspired by Britain's challenge to win the America's Cup.

In the current circumstances with most students still unable to go to school, home schooling has become more prevalent than ever. That is why the 1851 Trust is creating new ways of connecting pupils, parents and teachers, by taking science beyond the textbook to engage young people in the cutting edge technology of high performance sport.

The Trust has opened up their STEM Crew online platform, supported by INEOS, and created free digital learning resources, including the launch of the Remote Learning Projects, allowing students to continue their learning whilst studying at home. These projects span areas from across the team's America's Cup challenge including human performance, design, the environment and technology.

Following feedback from teachers and parents currently home-schooling their children, the Trust has now launched a new Pupil Portal enabling young people to sign up for direct access to the learning resources from home, without having to go through parents and teachers.

The STEM resources use INEOS TEAM UK's cutting-edge innovation and aspirational role models to harness the power of professional sport to challenge perceptions and engage students to share the opportunities science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) have to offer.

1851 Trust CEO Ben Cartledge said:

"The summer term has started with the majority of school heads and teachers, as well parents, still facing unprecedented challenges in educating their students and children.

"At the 1851 Trust we appreciate that we are in a fortunate position. Our teams and families have been well and therefore, with the support of INEOS and our other funders, we have been able to focus our efforts where we can best support young people at this time, namely remote learning.

"As remote learning becomes the new norm our STEM Crew online platform has had a 100% increase in activity since lockdown began, with over 3,000 UK secondary school teachers now registered. We are committed to creating new ways to connect pupils, parents and teachers with our free digital learning resources. That is why we recently launched our Remote Learning Projects and have now brought forward the launch of our Pupil Platform by several months.

"Our aim is simple, to ensure that our online learning resources are simple and accessible to use, so that no pupil or child misses out."

1851 Trust Patron and INEOS TEAM UK Skipper and Team Principal Ben Ainslie added:

"The America's Cup is one of the most challenging, technical and exciting sporting competitions in the world. When, back in 2014, we decided to assemble a team for our new challenge we looked for the best designers, scientists and technology pioneers. What we had not anticipated was how difficult it would be to find British talent. Capable and intelligent young people across the country were simply not being exposed to the opportunities that science could bring.

"That is why we were inspired to set up the 1851 Trust, with the conviction that we could engage young people with science through the cutting edge technology developed in sailing. It is a truly inspiring journey where sport and science collide.

"Over the past five years we have already inspired thousands of young people from all backgrounds but now, more than ever in the current crisis, it is important to find new and innovative ways to engage with young people with STEM and continue their learning from home. The work the Trust has done to quickly create these free digital resources and open them up for young people to use directly at home has been fantastic to see."