Competitions
We hold a range of competitions for students throughout the year, including our flagship annual TEXPO where students from local schools showcase their work and compete for prizes, and other projects and online activities. Find out more and enter here.
Now accepting entries for our annual STEM competition and exhibition
Welcome to the CSES Annual STEM Competition, TEXPO, a premier event that celebrates the ingenuity and creativity of students across Essex. This competition provides a unique platform for young minds to showcase their innovative projects in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Why Participate?
Participating in the TEXPO offers numerous benefits:
- Exposure to Industry Professionals: Your projects will be judged by experienced scientists and engineers, providing valuable feedback and career insights.
- Skill Development: Enhance your research, presentation, and problem-solving skills through hands-on project work and public speaking.
- Networking Opportunities: Meet and interact with peers from other schools, local dignitaries, and industry leaders.
- Recognition and Awards: Compete for substantial cash prizes and accolades that can bolster your CV or university applications.
The Big Bang Competition is open for entries! Inspire students to work together, problem solve and get creative with science, engineering and technology. Celebrate your students’ inner innovator with technology prizes, supported by Siemens.
Entries will close on 26 March at 5pm!
Find out more about The Competition and how to enter online.
Entries are also open for our TEXPO 2025 Competition – further details to follow soon!
Congratulations to everyone who won an award at the 2024 CSES TEXPO, which took place on Friday 21 June 2024 at Anglia Ruskin University.
CSES Schools' TEXPO: Fri 21 June 2024, ARU Chelmsford (9am for 10am start, latest 3pm finish)
For Y5-13 | Show your project to scientists and engineers | Cash prizes | Free lunch!
Are you in a STEM club at primary or secondary school? Have you made or investigated something fantastic in technology or science lessons? Have you been doing interesting technical projects at home?
Are you a teacher who'd like to showcase your pupils' / students' work? Or are you a parent, guardian or tutor whose child has been working on an exciting project?
If your answer to any of these questions is YES, then exhibit at the annual CSES TEXPO. There is prize money to be won and we even provide lunch!
We welcome projects from all areas of science and technology. This could be something you've made, software, experiments, reports, posters, videos etc. Entrants to the competition are encouraged to submit projects that they have been working on already in class or at home, including those for coursework, meaning that no extra work is necessary. There is no need to have a 'finished product', and your project can be originally from another competition or scheme.
Show your work to our judges, who include professional scientists and engineers, and you'll be in with a chance of winning a prize!
Click here to find out more | Click here to enter your project(s)
We are pleased to advise that our Centenary Photographic Competition 2024, this year on the theme of Time, is now open until Friday 14 June 2024 to allow for further entries.
We want you to take photographs (up to 3 entries) that express what time means to you, or how it impacts health or our environment, including the negative or positive roles of technology.
The competition is open to primary or secondary aged students living or educated in Essex. We will be looking for photos that are creative in their approach, with an innovative angle on the subject or a creative interpretation of the themes.
There are two categories of entry: one for primary school students and one for those at secondary level. Cash prizes are available!
You can read the full details here or click below to submit an entry.
Click here to submit your entry »
Happy snapping!
For Primary and Secondary Students
Taking a camera or your phone and shooting a picture is an easy. But how about, when composing your image, you think about how your picture might be used to discover some aspect of science and engineering?
From your camera or mobile phone to a flower or a rainbow, from a bubble to radio mast, from smoke to light, from microscopy to astronomy, everywhere in our modern world we are facing science and engineering wonders that make our lives easier and more fun. This is the fifth year of our competition and we have had some outstanding winners.
Science meets Art – Our annual photographic competition aims at creating an opportunity for you to creatively express what you observe within science, in pictures, and we hope that this will get you to explore the visual aspects of STEAM through the art and science of photography and capture images that demonstrate and communicate STEAM concepts and phenomena.
This year 2024,
the focus of the competition is on:
"Time"
(Including everything from clocks, hourglasses, sundials to biological clocks, sunsets, stars, ancient monuments and more!)
We want you to take photographs (up to 3 entries per person) that express what Time means to you or how it impacts health or our environment, including the negative or positive roles of technology. Each photograph must be accompanied with a short plain language explanation (not more than 50 words) of the thoughts behind your photograph.
- TEXPO 2024 (save the date) and Big Bang
- Congratulations to our Giving Voice winners
- 2023 TEXPO results and National Saturday Club awards
- Photographic Competition 2023 winners announced
- Photographic Competition 2023 – Deadline Extended!
- TEXPO 2023 – enter now
- Now open: Big Bang and TEXPO 2023
- TEXPO 2023: Save the Date
- Centenary Photographic Competition 2023: Electronic Communication
- The Big Bang 2023 is open