Awards evening for Young Innovators...
YOUNGSTERS from across the area were recognised for their achievements at the 3M Young Innovators Challenge 2018 celebratory event.
Around 265 pupils, parents and teachers attended the competition’s presentation evening, which took place at The Hub building inside Loughborough College.
Julie Owen, communications manager at 3M’s Loughborough site on Charnwood Campus, said: “The event was a fantastic success. It is always great to see so many talented young people so enthusiastic about science and innovation.”
The competition – held annually by 3M, in partnership with the Loughborough Echo and the Loughborough Learning Alliance – aims to foster innovation among the next generation.
It features six unique challenges, each aligned to a different area of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) curriculum.
This year a total of 145 teams took part, together comprising more than 450 pupils from 32 primary and secondary schools.
In each category, the winning team’s school has qualified for equipment worth £750, together with individual prizes for the students.
The first category to be announced on the night was the Eco Tech Primary Challenge. For this, primary school pupils had to design and build a functioning musical instrument using only recycled materials.
The winner was ‘Jingle Jars’, by Olive Walsh, a Year 5 pupil from Woodcote Primary School, in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Olive made her unique instrument from glass jars, loom bands, cardboard and wooden dowels, taking inspiration from the key and hammer mechanism in pianos.
Next up was the Eco Tech Secondary Challenge, which was held in conjunction with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) College in Loughborough.
For this challenge, secondary school teams had to design and build a product to help a visually impaired young person, using only recycled or sustainable materials.
The winner was Team E-sensetial, from Newbridge High School in Coalville. This team – comprising Year 7 and 8 students Joe Hutchenson, Jack Radford and Eden McClumpha – impressed judges with its ‘Life Experience Boards’.
The third category to be announced was the Cargo Carrier Challenge, which tasked primary school teams with designing and building a floating vessel capable of carrying up to 5kg while itself remaining as lightweight as possible.
The winner was the ‘ Thunder Flash’ craft, made by the Super Thunder 2 team at Long Whatton Church of England Primary School, comprising Year 4 pupils Emma Richards and Rosie Rands.
Next was the Tower Tech Challenge, which tasked secondary school teams with designing and building a three-part free-standing tower with maximum slenderness and load capacity but minimum mass.
Team Space Tech, from Brookvale Groby Learning Academy, came first in this category for its ‘Space Tech Tower’. The Year 9 and 10 students – Amber King, Ewan Pantling, Jess Penlington and Jack Mosley – impressed judges with their creative design.
Next came the Slo-Mo Marble Challenge – the most fiercely contested of all the categories, with 52 teams entering.
For the challenge, primary school teams had to build a marble run that maximised the time taken for a glass marble to roll from top to bottom, using materials from a given list. This put their understanding of friction, gravity, gradient and material properties to the test.
The winner was brother and sister team Oliver and Anna Mitchell, Years 4 and 5 at Packington Church of England Primary School.
Finally, in the ever-popular Science Detectives Challenge, secondary school students had to use forensic observation, analytical chemistry, social media analysis and suspect profiling to solve a suspected crime scenario.
Year 9 students Ben Palmas, Rahul Parmar, Ayush Panchal, Nile Khan and Thomas Adair, from Roundhill Academy in Thurmaston won the challenge.
The prize giving presentations were interleaved with speeches from honoured guests, beginning with Dr Will Whittow, Reader in Radiofrequency Materials at the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University.
Next to address the room was Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan, who also handed out certificates on the night.
She congratulated the winners and remarked on all the finalists’ “creative and innovative ideas.”
Rosalind Smith, reputation communications manager at 3M’s Loughborough site in Charnwood Campus, ended the night by thanking all the students who took part in this year’s competition, along with their teachers, headteachers and parents, and the competition judges and event speakers.