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We awarded a £100 STEM Club Bursary to regular attendees (and winners!) at our competition Chelmer Valley High School in 2016 to relaunch their CAD/CAM club, which specialises in the development of practical hands-on skills as well as the computer-based skills needed to design the work.
The club had had to close in 2015 due to budget cuts but we were very pleased to be able to resurrect it. We wish the club every success and look forward to working with them in the future.
True to form, CVHS put in a strong showing at our 2016 Schools' Competition and scooped a handful of awards.
King Edward VI Grammar School's Young Engineers Club bagged our £200 STEM Club Award at the 2015 Schools' Competition. Following an application to our STEM Club Bursary in 2016, we were very pleased to award them £100 to help them enter two teams into the 2016 VEX Robotics championships.
The funds awarded contributed towards the cost of parts for the robots and the registration fees for the second team.
We were delighted to award a £100 STEM Club Bursary to Tendring Technology College in 2014 to enable them to build a sumo wrestling robot.
The funding was used by the Tendring STEM Club to purchase parts. We awarded a further £70 in 2015 to make upgrades to the robot.
Several of Tendring's robots won prizes at the 2015 Schools' Competition.
Annabelle Richmond, winner of the Year 12-13 Systems and Control category, gives her thoughts on the 2013 CSES Schools' Competition.
I didn't know about the competition or the CSES until a few weeks prior to the event. One of the teachers at my school asked me if I'd like to take my project to the competition for the day with a few friends who were entering, and who also won prizes!
On Friday 29 June 2012, the Chelmsford Engineering Society held its annual school/college competition and exhibition in which various students from different schools brought in their projects to show to judges and other technology enthusiasts. Each school/project was given a stall, time to organise themselves, and encouraging smiles from others around, but with more than 60 projects in the competition, it was bound to be a long day.
The projects on display representing CCHS included the Year 8 Go4SET Eco-Classroom, the Engineering Education Scheme projects and A-Level Product Design projects from Megan Copnell and Rebecca Shelford. Throughout the day judges came and went, not just inspecting our projects but inspiring us through their incredible experience in technology and impressive careers.
At the end of the day, once the judging was complete, everyone was summoned to a lecture hall and the price giving ceremony began, along with a motivating talk straight after. The G04SET team achieved a Highly Commended and the EES team in the Systems and Control category came runners-up in their age group. These two groups will attended the Prize Ceremony on Saturday 14 July. Many thanks again to the Chelmsford Engineering Society for being so inspirational to our young engineers.
Written by a student from Chelmsford County High School for Girls
By Bob Easby, Westcliff High School for Boys
I first attended a Faraday Challenge with a group of Year 8 students from Westcliff High School for Boys on a cold January day in 2012. I was initially impressed at how a school hall, full of 36 excited 13-year-olds suddenly fell silent when the Faraday presenters began describing the day's challenge. The mood hardly changed with all the teams working diligently in, what for 13-year-olds, seemed to be total silence for the whole day. The boys were so enthusiastic on the way back to Westcliff that I resolved to try to host the event the following year.
Find out more from the IET website
Faraday Challenge Days are one-day STEM activities developed by the IET for six teams of six students aged 12-13 years for secondary schools, and also available for self-delivery in primary schools. The challenge days take place over approximately a six month period at schools throughout the UK.
Read more: Should I host the IET Faraday Challenge at my school?