Schools' Clean Sweep at Awards
21st July 2010
Students from across the region displayed their CREST Science and Technology projects to visiting guests and judges. The University also had a host of exciting science and technology activities for the students to take part in including the opportunity to test the speed of their kick using the official Jubalani 2010 world cup football, developed by Adidas in partnership with Loughborough University.
Judith Payne of Leicestershire Education Business Company (LEBC) which co-ordinates the CREST award scheme in Leicestershire said “It was fantastic to see the students being recognised for their hard work. CREST awards are a fantastic way for students to explore real world projects in an exciting way.”
Teacher, Jo Cox, from Redmoor High School said: “Our pupils thoroughly enjoyed the Big Bang Festival. They were able to take part in several workshops and gain an insight into the range of projects undertaken at Silver and Gold CREST level. We had entered two of our winning CREST projects (winners from the Hinckley Science Festival) and also a STEM Club project and were delighted when we won the award for the Best overall Bronze Crest Project and shortlisted for the Stem Club entry into the National Finals in March 2011. The winners of the Bronze award are now looking forward to their trip to London in March for the National Finals and hopefully we will be able to take some of their classmates down for a visit to what promises to be a fantastic event.”
CREST awards are a national award scheme for project work in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) run by the British Science Association.
The winning projects covered subjects from improving the performance of a wind turbine, an investigation into chocolate and snake genetics. The two schools who won awards at Gold level were teams of students who had took part in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) where they worked with companies throughout the year developing a product.
Leicestershire schools receiving awards were:
Redmoor High School – Best Bronze for their project – Investigating the Best Designs for Wind Turbines.
Welland Park High School – Best Silver for their projects – Snake Genetics and How does Chocolate affect us
King Edward VII Community College (Coalville) – Best Gold for their EES project – Design and make a non-mechanical or passive mixing device to work in line with a HLPC solvent supply
Countesthorpe Community College – Most Creative Gold for their EES project – New fuel pressure test equipment
Redmoor High School, Welland Park Community College and King Edward VII have been invited to take their projects to the National Science and Engineering Fair being held in London in March 2011. For more information on the CREST Award scheme please call Judith Payne at LEBC on 0116 240 7000.