Category: STEAM successes

You may remember that in half term Junior School pupils took part in the Farmvention competition, having lots of fun with drones and polytunnels with their families.

Farmvention is a national competition that encourages pupils to think of innovative ideas to help farmers tackle the problems they encounter caused by climate change.

There are a range of challenges and for half term we chose:

What is the best material for a polytunnel?

What is the best shape for a drone?

The quality of the entries was fabulous, and it was great to see so many videos, drawings, models, photographs and booklets showing the fun that was had by all. It was also fantastic to see the research that went on, the results of the tests that were carried out, the scientific explanations and the STEAM skills in action.

Mrs Farrer will be showing a video montage of all of the winners in Celebration Assembly and those girls will be receiving a special “STEAM” prize. We will then be entering Wimbledon High’s submission to the Farmvention competition later in the year. Here are some photos of some of the amazing entries. We’re looking forward to hearing about (and tasting) some of the crops that grow!

At the end of the summer term all of year 7 were involved in a cross disciplinary project which really tested their geography and science knowledge as well as their research, teamwork, design and communication skills. The project was set in rural Zimbabwe where few villages have access to mains electricity and the pupils were tasked with designing a way to utilise solar cells to improve lives in Gwanda. There was a particular focus on the UN Global Goal of Zero Hunger and all of the imaginative ideas were submitted to the Practical Action Off-Grid! Challenge. We were delighted to discover that Group 15 had won the competition and their prizes have just arrived! Thanks very much to Practical Action for the brilliant books and vouchers that each girl has won, as well as the TTS equipment received by the school. Congratulations to all of the girls for their fabulous work, and especially to Group 15!

The Engineer Leaders Award is a fantastic scheme run in both primary and secondary schools across the country. It asks the question

If you were an engineer, what would you do?

and pupils are encouraged to think of innovative ways to solve problems in daily life. Part of the award involves meeting a visiting engineer. This year we carried out the award with all pupils in years 1, 5 and 6 and were lucky enough to meet Eleanor Mackle, a biomedical engineer from UCL and Robert Rayner a robotic engineer from Kingston University. The inventions that they girls came up with are fantastic. They drew pictures, wrote letters explaining their ideas, and carried out lots of research.

We were absolutely delighted that we have a trophy winner in each of the age categories and many girls received judges commendations and distinctions. When the certificates arrive these will be awarded in assembly. In the meantime our three very excited trophy winners will be going to an award ceremony at Kingston University. This is an amazing achievement as many thousands of entries were received from pupils all around the country. A very special well done to Ren, Beatrice and Keira. All of the entries will be on display in school on 28th June.

In May a team of year 8 girls were invited to the Science Museum to attend the final of the Ultimate STEM Challenge to show and celebrate the project they had been working on during the year. They displayed their “Teapods” innovation to the judges and were quizzed on their research, investigations and suggestions for improvements. The team had a fantastic day meeting students from other schools, talking to the judges, looking around the Science Museum and even receiving fantastic goody bags! Congratulations on such a fabulous project! More information about the Ultimate STEM Challenge can be found here.

We were delighted to find out that four Wimbledon High teams were chosen  to attend the prestigious national TeenTech finals on 24th June. The event took place at the Institute for Engineering and Technology at Savoy Place in London, and our teams impressed the judges by explaining all of their innovative ideas to them. Aerotrans, Pen for the Blind, Stress-Less Desk and the Passenger Organisation Device were all carefully researched, and the prototypes have been thought through with the help from mentors at Thames Link, Kingston University and UCEM. On the day the VIP judges spent a great deal of time discussing the innovations with the teams and there was also an opportunity to meet lots of other pupils, hear about their ideas and also to meet Maggie Philbin!

When the winners were announced we were absolutely thrilled to discover that Team Aerotrans were winners in the Transport category. This was especially impressive as they were a year 7 team competing in the 11-16 age category. In the Spring term they will be going to Buckingham Palace to receive their award. Look out for Aerotrans – it may well be the way you will be travelling in the future!

We are very proud of  our Year 12 Engineering Education Scheme team who went to the ICBT STEM Festival at the BP Headquarters in Sunbury. They explained to the judges their design for an urban park structure, and all of the engineering considerations that they had made. They were delighted to be awarded  the “Contribution to Business Award 2019”. Huge thanks to their mentors at Ramboll and to Saranya for all the support, and to BP for hosting the event. It was all fantastic practice for our future engineers!

Congratulations to everyone that took part in Sydenham High’s #700STEMChallenge. There were four winners from Wimbledon High! Many congratulations go to

Lara for ‘Wind Turbine rap’

Elena for ‘Journey of the number zero’

Julia for ‘The Periodic Table’

Samah for ‘Has the film industry accurately portrayed space?’

Read more about the competition here.