STUDENTS from Evesham’s Bredon Hill Academy reached the final of the national BP Ultimate STEM Challenge held at London’s Science Museum on Monday, narrowly missing out on the top prize.
The school’s representatives Theo Rodgers, Lorna Simpson, Eleanor Curry and Edward O’Sullivan did well to reach the final and gave a fantastic account of themselves on the day.
The contest, launched in partnership with STEM Learning in June 2017, challenged UK students aged between 11 and 14 to put their Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills to the test by tackling real-world energy problems.
This year’s theme was My Sustainable Future and challenged young people to develop solutions to one of three real-world challenges: Handy Hydro, Parched Plants or Brilliant Biogas.
Students were tasked with thinking about how they could reduce use of natural resources or bring down greenhouse gas emissions.
Edward, Eleanor, Lorna and Theo developed their best ideas for the Handy Hydro challenge where they had to create an efficient design for generating electricity from moving water.
Sally Huntly, teacher at Bredon Hill Academy which won the title last year, said everyone was incredibly proud of the team for reaching the final and for their hard work and positive attitude.
“The students loved creating something new from scratch and seeing how it applied to real life.
“They also learnt how to use new tools and how to develop an idea from conception through to it being a real product.”
One of the students added: “We were ecstatic and a bit nervous when we found out we were in the final.
“Our favourite part was experimenting and getting soaking wet with our prototype, and we learnt about water turbines, how they work, and also different ways of measuring electricity.”
An expert judging panel decided the result and all the finalists will have the chance to participate in a day of fun science activities.
This year is ‘The Year of Engineering’, a 12-month campaign to tackle the engineering skills gap and widen the pool of young people who join the profession.
BP is supporting the campaign throughout 2018 with a variety of events and experiences and will also be producing a range of engineering-themed resources for the BP Education Service website.
Samantha Bulkeley, UK Schools Education Manager at BP, congratulated all the teams which reached the final, adding they were impressed to see the students’ problem-solving and teamwork skills as they developed their own unique responses to real-life challenges. the Ultimate STEM Challenge final.
“The finalist entries all stood out for their creativity and innovation in helping to create a more sustainable future.”
The overall winners were pupils from Walton Priory School in Staffordshire who won £500 for the school and an Ultimate STEM experience.
