Year 8 team reach STEM Challenge final!

During our Challenge Day on 30^th March, all of Year 8 entered the Sustainable Futures Innovation Challenge by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

This involved our students becoming engineers and sharing their ideas for innovations that work towards a sustainable future for our planet, and our goal of reaching net zero as a country. Students chose from one of four themes: travel and transport, food systems, homes and habitats and consumerism - designing an innovative system or product that could help address that challenge.

The designs blew the science staff away, ranging from solar panelled planes to zero food waste apps. The students showed high quality designs and creativity with brilliant presentations. Two teams were shortlisted by the Royal Academy as a joint entry: Hydro-mart, a renewable energy and sustainable supermarket and Eco-Beauty, which made beauty products that didn’t impact negatively on the environment. This new team of 11 students merged their ideas and took part in the semi-finals which included a Q & A session with four STEM engineers about their profession, a coding task where they took over the controls of a virtual mars rover and solved the problem of a missing fuel cell, and finally, an online presentation where they showcased their innovation to a panel of judges.

During the semi-finals the team won prizes for themselves and also a 3D printer and robotics for the school. After a nervous wait we have now been advised that they have been selected as FINALISTS, with only 9 other schools! Later in June they will be travelling to London to the Royal Academy of Engineering, all expenses paid, for a prize giving celebration event. Here they will have the opportunity to present their projects to a panel of judges as well as engineers and others working in STEM. As a reward for being selected as a finalist they have won £1000 to enhance STEM provision at TGGS! Well done Year 8. We cannot wait to hear all about the final celebration!