Nearly 100 Gloucestershire Primary Schools recently met at GE Aviation's Bishops Cleeve site to compete for the title of "Best Team" in the County round of the K'Nex Challenge, part of the "Junior Engineer for Great Britain" competition. In all, 196 pupils, representing 98 schools, competed in pairs to decide the winning team that would represent the County in the South-West regional final in July and, if successful, attend the national final.
The K'nex Challenge provides children with an introduction to the exciting world of engineering by inviting them to produce a design solution for a given problem and then using K'nex to build it. K'nex is a very adaptable construction kit that allows pupils to experiment with structures, gears and other mechanisms while modelling their design.
The Gloucestershire final was judged by a team from GE Aviation, who were looking for the Best School and the Best Team in the County. Following the final, the winners join in a day of celebration at the annual GE Aviation sponsored 'School Technology awards' which rewards and acknowledges the students who have entered the CREST programme and other educational programmes sponsored by GE's Bishops Cleeve site.
In the County final, teams were set a common challenge and a one-hour build time. The challenge for 2009 was to build a means of transport to get the Thrust land-speed record car to a desert site ready for it's land speed record attempt. The teams needed to ensure the vehicle had a large flat cargo bay with double entry doors, a means of loading it, a separate passenger compartment for 20 staff with it's own door, a cockpit and some means of controlling the transport.
This year, budding engineers, Zack Gilchrist and Shawn Jelfs, from Rowanfield Junior School, Cheltenham impressed the judges with an outstanding model and explanations that fulfilled all the criteria and were crowned "Best Team" with Pillowell primary taking the "Best School" award.
The 12 GE Aviation organisers and Judges who took part in the competition were very impressed with the quality of this year's final. Lorraine Kent, a GE Aviation employee taking part for the first time said," I was amazed at the enthusiasm and skill on display" while Stephane Petter, a graduate engineer, who had helped organise the event this year said, "It is a real pleasure to see young people enjoying themselves so much in a Science and Technology activity, I'm sure this is an activity they will remember for a long time to come".
Peter Collins, General Manager, GE Aviation Systems, Bishops Cleeve site commented, "GE is delighted to support the Schools Technology Awards. Our goal is to further the teaching of technology and motivate students to pursue an education in engineering. This competition gives pupils the opportunity to get involved, develop team-working skills, encourage problem solving and enhance their communication skills."
The first round of the national K'nex Challenge started in September, when each Primary School was visited by their local STEMNET partner who ran an in-house competition to attain a "School score" to enter in the "Best School" category of the competition and find the schools' "Best team" to represent them in the County final.