The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Perth school pupils’ ideas for drones are no flights of fancy
Goodlyburn top in national contest run by Amazon and CAA
A Perth primary school has swept the board to take the top three spots in a drone-designing competition for a top internet retailer.
Pupils at Goodlyburn Primary beat almost 2,000 competitors in the Scottish leg of the contest, which was run by Amazon and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The children will now go forward to the national competition.
Goodlyburn pupil Joanne Wright was awarded the top spot for designing her spinner drone, which would deliver surprise birthday presents to children.
Second place went to Grace Keay for the sunny drone, which would deliver water, paddling pools and sun cream to people on warm days, and third place was awarded to Angus MacDermid for his pizza deliverer drone.
The successful young engineers were awarded their prizes in a special ceremony during a school assembly.
Winning pupils took home gift baskets of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) prizes.
Joanne also earned a cash donation of £1,000 for her school, to be spent on in-school STEM resources.
One national winner will be selected from the 12 regional finalists and have the opportunity to travel to the Amazon Prime Air Lab in Cambridge, where their design will be exhibited for a year.
The competition helped raise awareness of the CAA’s Drone Code, a set of rules and guidelines which outline how to fly drones safely and within the law in the UK.
All primary school pupils in P2-5 in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were eligible to enter the competition which challenged them to design their interpretation of a delivery drone to serve a humanitarian purpose or improve society.
Jonathan Nicholson, assistant director of communications at the CAA, said: “All the entries were absolutely amazing and it was great to see so many students showing an interest in drones.
“By the time they are adults, drones could well be playing key roles in everyday life. But for that to happen we need everyone who flies a drone now to do so safely.”