Get the most out of your Blueprint
Start your Big Bang at School journey with our event planning guide, packed with insights, content, guidance and connections for educators and career leads. This step-by-step guide will help students learn the range of STEM roles and routes available, and the technical and non-technical skills needed.
The Blueprint aims to inspire and engage young people by:
bringing the curriculum to life
including skills development
being inclusive and representative
embedding careers inspiration
containing active participation
offering sustained engagement
Step 1: Set up your event
A little planning goes a long way. These steps will help you create an engaging event that fits your school and inspires more young people to explore STEM.
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Pick a structure that suits your school's space, timetable and goals:
Carousel day: classes rotate through multiple workshops across the day
STEM fair day: fair-style event with stalls and stands of activities. Ideal for larger spaces and whole-school involvement
Hybrid: combine formats. For example, have a fair as an activity within your carousel day
See how other schools have formatted their events in our case studies.
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What space do you have available outside of the science department? Make the most of all of the spaces you have available that best suit your range of STEM activities. This way, all students will have the best opportunity to engage with the event.
Space
Activity ideas
Top tips
Science/computer labs
include practical, hands-on activities
add an immersive theme
Sports hall
Sports science challenges
use tables as stalls for a fair-style day, arranging them to map out a floor path
create a 'careers trail' map to help students navigate the event
Assembly hall/auditorium
Host an awards ceremony or project showcase to celebrate Big Bang Competition project entries
deliver an assembly, show or live demo to a larger audience to reach more students
Outdoor spaces
check the weather forecast and have a backup plan
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Choosing your event date is one of the most important early steps. A date helps to secure external providers, volunteers and internal support.
plan ahead: the earlier you confirm your date, the more likely you are to access high-quality outreach and resources.
let us know: please inform us of your chosen date as soon as possible so we can help connect you with our networks and partners
consider avoiding busy periods: British Science Week (March) is a popular choice, but also the busiest time for external providers. If you’re planning for March, make sure to book early and prepare in advance to avoid disappointment
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We encourage you to expand the reach of your Big Bang at School Blueprint event to engage as many students as possible. A key aim of our programme is to inspire all young people into STEM careers, not just those who already have a passion for science and engineering. Please ensure that all students are encouraged to participate, not just those already interested in engineering and technology or other STEM careers.
We are particularly keen for schools to include the following groups (as we know these groups are underrepresented in engineering and technology):girls (at least 50% if possible)
disabled young people and those with special educational needs
students from UK minority ethnic backgrounds, including in particular Black, Black British, Caribbean or African young people
Students
How to engage
Whole year group
fair-style day with each class group assigned a period of the day to attend the fair
carousel day with each class rotating between activities
Whole school
assembly or show in a hall repeated for multiple year groups
fair-style day with each year group assigned a period of the day to attend the fair
one week of carousel days with each year group off timetable for one day of the week
peer to peer activities where older students support young students with activities
External schools
invite feeder schools and celebrate what your school has to offer
invite local schools to attend your fair-style day
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Teamwork makes everything easier. We strongly recommend that you involve a few other members of staff so you build a support team around you.
involve your school careers leads and department heads so they can support. You may also want to reach out to your local Careers and Enterprise Hub and link this event to Gatsby Benchmarks and your Skills Builder
ensure that you have cross-department support on the day so the event runs smoothly. Why not outsource some roles and have regular meetings with the maths, design and technology, food and nutrition, geography or music departments? This will help share curriculum and careers messaging across all subjects and add a narrative for the day
You may also want to include some early career teachers, teacher assistants and parents/guardians. This leadership approach can also support your own CPD
Step 2: Build your activities and workshops
It's time to think about the activities you'd like at your event. Start with what works for your school, and we can help you build on it each year.
You could invite external organisations to deliver workshops. We can help you find free, high-quality activities and STEM outreach through Neon and our regional contact packs. Including opportunities from universities and professional institutions.
Alternatively, you could run your own cost-effective workshops. Our DIY teacher-led activities can be adapted to suit your students, timetable and available resources. You could also invite your STEM club or older students to help lead them.
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Find inspiring enrichment activities with Neon
Book high-quality workshops and activities via Neon. Just search for your school and see which experiences are available for you. All our activities and providers from across the UK meet the Neon quality criteria. You can find:
assemblies or shows
talks or speakers
workshops
events
shows
volunteers and ambassadors
Big Bang Blueprint supported workshops
We have collaborated with the two organisations to co-create workshops designed for Big Bang at School Blueprint events. Get an exclusive 10% discounts on these workshops if you book them for your Big Bang at School event:
Aveea – Robotics and Automation workshop
Zoolab and EngineeringUK – Biomimicry Show
Free higher education outreach
Universities and colleges often offer free workshops including workshops and careers talks. Book early as many outreach teams are small and book up fast. Use our regional packs to find nearby institutions.
[Explore the Blueprint Regional Toolkit]
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Browse our teacher-led activities
We have a range of STEM activities and resources that you can use in your event. These include teacher guides and student guides, with content linking to STEM careers throughout.
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A Big Bang at School should celebrate a range of career pathways, including universities, apprenticeships and T Levels. We have lots of Careers resources that you can use to prepare for the event to support your conversations with young people about STEM careers. We have resources to share amongst staff, with students and with parents and carers.
Here are some ways to include career links into your day:
Before the event
Share these resources in your planning to support you to create a progressive, engaging and impactful STEM careers programme. Here are some ideas:
Engineering: from idea to careers
STEM careers pathways poster
Advance your STEM careers provision | Free guide for Careers Leaders
[Explore all of our Careers Resources here]
On the day
Showcase real role models to bring engineering careers to life!
Discover real jobs in engineering and tech. Learn what engineers and STEM professionals love about their jobs, what they do and how they got started in our short videos: Real jobs in engineering
Checkout This is Engineering role models and posters: This is engineering posters
Take the Meet The Future You Quiz
Inspire your students with careers aligned with their passions! Meet the future you quizzes them and produces suggestions of things they will enjoy as careers in the future.
After the event
Share printed resources for students to take home:
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The Big Bang Competition
Bring your students’ ideas to life with the UK’s biggest STEM competition for young people. Enter a STEM project to be in with the chance of winning life-changing prizes.
Free and open to students aged 11 to 18, The Competition helps build confidence, practise STEM skills and receive feedback from real STEM professionals.
Got a project idea? Entries close on Friday 12 March 2027 at 4pm.
Enter The Big Bang Competition
The Big Bang Challenge
Build your own STEM project and help solve real-world issues using our handy, step-by-step guides. The Challenge supports project-based learning and helps young people explore real-world issues through STEM. Whether you have a single lesson, several days or a few weeks available, The Challenge can be adapted to suit your classroom, STEM club or enrichment day.
Other wider STEM Project work
CREST: These challenges are led by the British Science Association. They have a cost, however they also run a grant to cover costs. The challenge titles are also worth a read through for ideas.
Solutions for the Planet: The award-winning Big Ideas Programme begins conversations around the climate and sustainability issues and gives young people a platform to have their ideas heard. Get in touch via their contact form.
Celebrate your projects
Make project work feel special by showcasing and rewarding students' achievements. A simple awards ceremony can help build confidence, recognise effort and inspire future participation.
invite local businesses, STEM Ambassadors, parents or alumni to help judge projects
create awards that reflect your event, such as Innovation, Sustainability, Teamwork or Best STEM Communicator
display projects, posters and prototypes around the school to share students' ideas with the wider community
include a STEM careers talk or guest speaker to help students explore future opportunities
share photos and highlights on social media using #BigBangatSchool and @EUKEducation
Step 3: Get inspired
See how schools across the UK have brought their Big Bang at School events to life. Explore real examples to discover different formats, project ideas and approaches to engaging students with STEM.
Find out what activities schools ran, how they worked with employers and volunteers, the support they accessed, and the lessons they learned along the way. Whether you're planning your first event or looking for fresh ideas, these case studies can help shape your own Big Bang at School.
I really like the resources that we got from EUK Education. The booklets and posters about STEM careers were really useful as they were something we could give the students. Especially when some year 11 students were interested in knowing more about careers in engineering.
— Teacher
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