STEM Challenge 2015

On Monday 13th July, 12 year 10 pupils from Product Design attended a STEM Challenge day at Ashton Sixth Form College. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, aims to encourage high achieving pupils to study Technology at college and university, and pit the students against each other as part of a number of activities on the day.

The first one involved the students making an Efit of a criminal teacher using the same face recognition technology which is used by police forces across the UK. The teams then built a bridge using household items which had to hold as many weights as possible. Next, the pupils were asked to make a car which was then entered into a race against the other teams. Finally the groups used computer technology to program a robot to manoeuver a certain route. The pupils were scored on the outcome of their product, their teamwork and the plan of their designs.

After the activities, the winning teams were awarded with a certificate and a plaque. Regan Meadowcroft and Ahmod Masum were awarded 1st place in the car building challenge where their car completed the race in 1.24 seconds. Bradley Hulme and Aqilah Islam also received 1st place in the Efit challenge and were delighted to also be rewarded as the overall winners of the day. They will go on to take part in the finals where they will face another day of challenges against other schools.