On Saturday 9 May, students from our three Nord Anglia schools in Shanghai - NAIS Pudong, BISS Puxi and NACIS - came together for a one-day STEAM Bootcamp, hosted at BISS Puxi. It was a brilliant opportunity for students in Years 7–9 to connect across campuses, take on hands-on challenges, and apply their creativity and problem-solving skills in exciting, real-world contexts.
The aim of the day wasn’t just to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths - it was also about strengthening ties between our schools, building new friendships, and giving students a chance to collaborate with peers they wouldn’t usually meet. Each activity was designed to encourage curiosity, creativity and resilience - whilst also reinforcing our shared Nord Anglia Learner Ambitions.
Working in mixed-school teams, the students rotated through five fast-paced challenge stations: designing protective structures for an egg drop, building water filtration systems, constructing bridges using magnets, creating light-up LED cards, and getting hands-on with Arduino microcontrollers to learn basic coding. These tasks sparked a huge range of thinking - some relied on engineering skills, others on logic or artistic flair - but all encouraged students to work together, try out ideas, and adapt when things didn’t go as planned.
What stood out most was how well the students embraced the spirit of the day. They were thoughtful and curious in their approach, open to learning from each other and full of creative solutions. They worked collaboratively to share ideas, support each other’s thinking and build trust within their new teams. It was especially lovely to see how the students encouraged one another through the trickier challenges, often celebrating successes as a group rather than individuals.
We were also incredibly proud of the Year 10 and Year 12 students who helped lead the day. Acting as facilitators, they played a huge part in keeping things running smoothly and made a big impression with their energy and leadership. It was fantastic to see older students stepping up to guide our younger students - asking great questions, offering support when teams were stuck, and building their own confidence in the process.
By the end of the day, the students had not only built bridges and circuits - they’d also built friendships, developed their teamwork and communication skills too!
My amazing day at the STEAM Bootcamp
"On Saturday I came to school for the STEAM bootcamp and I had been wondering excitedly about what we would be doing for the day. Once we arrived and signed in, Miss Nagulendran told everyone what type of challenges we were going to do. The challenges were extremely fun and I learnt a lot in just a few hours. We were split into groups of 4 or 5 mixed up with other schools and we did tasks like build a bridge using magnets, LED cards and filtering water, etc. These challenges made us think and use Learner Ambitions to solve them, then each teacher rated our group based on how we collaborated and used critical thinking to solve these problems. It was extremely nice and I can’t wait to do it again next year. The steam bootcamp was one of the best events that has happened in our school. I am looking forward to it."
- Dhyana (7U)
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