FUTURE TALENTED Spring Term 2019 - Issue 2 | Page 46

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Gatsby Benchmarks
WALTON PRIORY MIDDLE SCHOOL – 2018 ULTIMATE STEM CHALLENGE WINNERS
What did Walton’s winning
solution look like?
The girls built a waterwheel, out of
two bicycle wheels and scrap wood.
The school bought a dynamo for £8
from eBay in China, and our design
and technology technician helped
the team to get it attached with a
bicycle chain. We attached a few
Christmas tree lights to the dynamo
and when they actually lit up, children
were running around the whole
school, getting anyone they could
find to come and see it.
Once it worked, we loaded the
team into a minibus and went to a
stream. They built a dam from a
ladder, some plastic and sandbags.
We were trying to show that power
output was proportional to the depth
of water in the dam.
Waterwheels are not leading-
edge science and we were surprised
to reach the competition final at the
46 // STEM
Science Museum. Other schools had
much more sophisticated entries.
However, it was obvious during our
team’s presentation that we had easily
had the most fun and that standing
in a stream in the bitter cold with
machinery that refused to work struck
a chord with the experienced BP
engineers on the judging panel. Our
technology didn’t win, but our team’s
tenacity and problem-solving
abilities did.
For a little school like ours, with
few resources, winning the Ultimate
STEM Challenge had an extraordinary
effect. Our most recent Ofsted report
wasn’t good, and the win came at
just the right time to put a spring back
in everyone’s step. We’ve had VIP
visitors, photos in all the local papers
and a congratulatory letter from our
local MP.
Gordon Taylor, STEM technician
“Our technology didn't win
but our tenacity and
problem-solving abilities did”
RESOURCES
Learn more about the
Ultimate STEM Challenge
and apply by 15 February 2019.
bit.ly/UltimateSTEM