Channing has been alive with the spirit of inquiry during STEM Week. The theme for this year is one that sits at the very heart of a Channing education: Curiosity.

We often define curiosity as the eager, intrinsic desire to seek new information and experiences. But as our pupils have demonstrated through their wonderful presentations this week, curiosity is more than just an interest; it is the spark that transforms a mistake or an accident into a breakthrough that changes the world.

Our STEM leaders shared several fascinating stories where simple curiosity turned unexpected results into global innovations. We heard about Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering, who, while researching digestion in the 1880s, noticed flies gathering around a dog’s urine after its pancreas had been removed. Rather than ignoring this minor detail, their curiosity led them to discover the link between the pancreas and diabetes, laying the foundation for the life-saving discovery of insulin by Banting and Best in 1921.

Similarly, we learned how Percy Spencer noticed a chocolate bar melting in his pocket while working on radar technology. His curiosity led him to test popcorn kernels and eggs near a magnetron, eventually giving us the microwave oven.

You might also be interested to learn that researchers at the Kyoto Institute of Technology discovered bacteria near a recycling plant that had evolved to produce a special enzyme. This enzyme can actually digest PET plastic, the material used in our water bottles, breaking it down into chemical pieces that the bacteria use for energy. It offers a truly sustainable hope for a future where plastic pollution is reduced and resources are reused.

However, the examples also beg the question how many important discoveries were missed due to the traditional male domination of STEM subjects? We can only imagine what might have been if the girls and women of the past had enjoyed the same support and encouragement to be curious as their male counterparts, rather than being dismissed or not taken seriously.

The message to the school was clear: when we ask Why did that happen? instead of simply claiming That shouldn’t have happened, we open the door to progress. As our pupils so eloquently put it, curiosity is the engine of STEM subjects (and arguably for any and all subjects) for three key reasons:

It leads to questions: It moves us from passive observation to active inquiry. How does this work? What happens if I change this?

It drives problem-solving: curious minds do not just accept the status quo; they look for ways to fix, improve, and create.

It encourages resilience: STEM is built on trial and error. Curiosity provides the motivation to try again when an experiment fails and to explore a different path.

For the rest of the week, the school was buzzing with STEM challenges. Our Year 7 and 8 pupils were busy collecting stamps in their STEM Passports, while students across all year groups were participating in the Lanyard Quest. This particular challenge required a keen eye and a mathematical mind, as pupils tracked down 24 teachers wearing chemical symbols to calculate the sum of their atomic numbers.

I am also delighted to announce the expansion of our STEM Society. It is now open to everyone from Years 7 to 11, moving toward a more active, hands-on approach including an upcoming bridge-building engineering competition.