Amelie, Cathryn and Hattie, from Bredon Hill Academy in Evesham, won the Ultimate STEM Challenge, an annual competition open to students aged 11 to 14 which challenges them to use STEM skills to tackle real-world problems.
It is run by STEM Learning, BP and the Science Museum and this year students were asked to tackle one of three investigations. To find:
• The most efficient design for a water-powered rocket.
• The best wing design for a remote controlled survey aircraft.
• The best design for a robot arm and gripper.
The finals took place at the Science Museum in London during British Science Week last week and saw teams taking part in a science fair to showcase their projects. They also had to present their results to a panel of judges.
The trio from Bredon Hill took on the wing design challenge and their winning solution took inspiration from flying animals, including the draco lizard.
It centred around an investigation as to whether broader and longer wings would be most effective for gliding.
The draco is a gliding lizard and the students’ presentation explained how the draco’s “wings” inspired them when making improvements to their prototype design: “The shape of their wing flaps are much wider than our original design, the amount beneath the wings was much smaller than our design and the angle which they held their wings (was different).
“We found that in the end, the best (design) was the full-wing ... draco lizard plane. Nobody has ever thought of having a plane with wings that shape. Most planes or drones have longer and thinner wings which fly based off Bernoulli’s principle.”
STEM stars: A judge speaks to competitors at the finals at the Science Museum (image supplied)
The winning trio’s teacher from Bredon Hill, Sally Huntly, said: “They’ve worked so hard for this. The skills the girls have developed at the final event today alone is fantastic.
“Their ability to present their ideas to other people and their confidence has bloomed throughout the day. The girls can now go back to school and inspire other students.”
Two other finalists were also commended for their creativity and ability to bring their projects to life with two new awards – Bohunt School won a “Thinking Creatively” award, while Queen Elizabeth’s School were awarded “Best Stand” at the fair.
STEM Learning operates the National STEM Learning Centre and Network and other STEM initiatives including a network of STEM Ambassadors.
- For information on the Ultimate STEM Challenge, visit www.bp.com/ultimatestemchallenge and for more on STEM Learning, go to www.stem.org.uk