Enterprising award for four schools at Big Bang Fair SW
Four Devon schools have had their ingenuity recognised with a special award at the University of Exeter’s Big Bang Fair South West in Exeter this week (Wednesday 29 June 2016).
Devon County Council once again supported the “Enterprising Young Devon” competition at the annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) event for young people from schools across the region.
All of the projects entered for the Award, which is open to 11-18 year olds, were on display at the event. Following judging by a panel of industry experts, prizes were presented to the top four entries which showed potential to go to market and be a commercial success.
The award-winning students/schools were:
• Teignmouth Community School with “Portable Wind Power Generator”;
• West Exe School with “Share a Candle”;
• The Atrium Studio with “Double Bale Spikes”;
• Colyton Grammar School with “Constructing and Programming an Object Tracking Quadcopter”.
They each receive access to a business mentor to support the development of their idea, and the County Council funds an enterprise day for them during the next academic year. Teignmouth Community School, West Exe School and Colyton Grammar are all going to the National Finals.
As well as offering students a range of interactive activities and competitions during the day, the Big Bang Fair South West is also a chance to look at career opportunities within the sector, with a number of companies on hand to provide advice and expertise.
Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Economy and Growth, said: “We’re extremely proud to be supporting the Enterprising Young Devon Award at the Big Bang Fair again this year. It always attracts innovative and creative ideas, and the judges faced a difficult task in choosing their top four from the dozens of exceptional entries we received. The Big Bang Fair South West is about inspiring our engineers and scientists of the future and it’s great that businesses support the event to provide an insight on potential careers.”
Alex Ledbrooke, Partnership Manager for Education Business Partnership SW which runs the event, said: “It’s fantastic to have the support of Devon County Council at The Big Bang South West; they’ve helped make the event the huge success it is. Students who have won the Enterprising Young Devon Award will have further support from industry experts and from the Education Business Partnership who will help them take their innovative ideas to the next level, which could even lead to commercial production.”
Louise Harris, Head of Student Recruitment at the University of Exeter, said: “University staff and students were very pleased to host this year’s Big Bang Fair South West. We hope the pupils who attended were inspired by the world-leading scientific research going on at the University of Exeter and the wide variety of other exciting and interactive displays which the other exhibitors had created for the day. Our experts were thrilled to be able to demonstrate how exciting science and mathematics can be, and how important STEM skills are now to society and the economy.”
