PUPILS’ POLLUTION SOLUTION NAMED WINNING DESIGN

11-year-olds scoop national primary trophy Mcinnes

BRAINWAVES: Isaac Pickering demonstrating how the invention would work.

TWO young inventors have won a national competition to find schoolchildren’s bright ideas for the future.

The ‘Great Exhibition At Home’ was inspired by the famous 1851 celebration of the wonders of industry from around the world.

But while the original Great Exhibition was held at Crystal Palace – and was the brainchild of Queen Victoria’s husband Prince

Albert – the 2020 contest was a virtual affair.

For seven weeks during lockdown, Rode Heath Primary pupils Isaac Pickering and Lili Moores worked on a series of inventions via Zoom calls with each other.

They then entered their favourite idea – a device for sucking up plastic waste from the sea and recycling it – into the competition, organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Now the two 11-year-olds have gone on to win the national primary trophy, and came second overall.

Isaac, from Kidsgrove, said: “When I found we’d won, I couldn’t stop smiling for an hour. The best bit has been trying to invent something that hasn’t been done before.”

The challenge was open to young people from Years 4 to 12, who had to use engineering principles to solve environmental problems.

Isaac and Lili, who have moved on to Alsager School since entering the contest, formed a formidable team. Every week, they came up with a different invention idea.

They then chose their favourite and created a 60-second video explaining how it would work.

“Because we were doing the project via Zoom, it was difficult to make models, so we did a drawing of our pollution solution,” added Isaac.

“It’s not a recycling plant in itself. It’s a building that fits into the sea and sucks up plastic. The plastic goes into a centrifuge that spins it around. “You can then put it into a transporter and take it away for recycling. Ours was designed for somewhere like the North Atlantic great garbage patch. But you could make a smaller one to use in the mouth of a river.”

As part of the project, they had to research the original Great Exhibition. Lili, from Rode Heath, left, said: “I hadn’t heard of it before. We found out about all these famous people who had been involved in it.”

Their competition video is now being ‘exhibited’ on Youtube. Their prize includes £300 and a virtual school visit from an engineer.

Both Lili and Isaac want to go into engineering for a career.

Isaac added: “I’m really torn between aquanautical and aeronautical engineering – submarines or planes.”

Rode Heath has been running a ‘think like an engineer’ initiative for the last four years.

Teacher Julie Wiskow said: “We are extremely proud of both Isaac and Lili. It is a clear demonstration of the impact our project has had on pupils.”