Educators win cash prizes for STEM projects
Five Tamworth-based educators have won cash prizes, for their award-winning STEM projects.
The prizes were awarded by PI-KEM, as part of their school STEM competition. The competition was launched as part of the firm's 30th anniversary celebrations, and invited secondary and sixth form schools and colleges within Tamworth, Polesworth and Kingsbury area to participate.
As a specialist supplier of advanced materials and equipment, based in Wilnecote, Tamworth, PI-KEM launched the competition to encourage young people in the community to engage in STEM based activities and inspire them to look at further education and careers.
Open to any school department, the competition urged school staff to describe how they would spend £1,500 on a STEM focused project.
Fiona Rouse, PI-KEM operations director, discussed the competition with Tamworth Radio, and said: “We had some really brilliant project ideas coming in from the local schools,
"We were so impressed that we ended up awarding five prizes, one being for TEC, Belgrave because the passion that the staff showed was absolutely amazing. The overall Directors Award (an enhanced £,2000 prize) went to their Science Department - they outshone everybody with the passion they showed - they did a video which was absolutely inspiring. ”
The full list of winners include:
Director 's Award: Tamworth Enterprise College, Charlotte Doherty and Lauren Cox
Charlotte and Lauren will be purchasing robotics kits for the college's science department to enable students to have access to a world of robots and coding, making a difference for post 16 options and students future employability.
Winner: The Polesworth School, Michael Carroll
Michael will be purchasing a 3D printer in order to establish an Engineering Club
Winner: The Rawlett School, Paul Bryant
Paul will be using his prize to buy advanced weather equipment for the geography department, which will be to be situated both around the site, as well as hand held equipment to study specific areas, allowing students, as well as the wider community, to take the complex theory of climate and make it common sense, by bringing abstract data into the hands of students.
Highly Commended: The Polesworth School, Sharon Leftwich-Lloyd
Sharon will be using the cash to purchase software for the drama department in order to interpret sound waves to meet the needs of the performance in terms of length, volume, peaks and dips, allowing students to use visual graphs to see soundwaves form and pattern.
Highly Commended: The Rawlett School, Simon McIntyre
Simon wanted to purchase Lego Robot inventor kits, tapping into the quality resources, and competitions, of Lego and lessons learned from that, whilst also encouraging students to learn coding and become "robotics ambassadors".
Pictured: Paul Bryant winning his highly commended prize