The Rotary Club of Royal Wootton Bassett & District went along to Longleaze Primary School in Royal Wootton Bassett recently at the invitation of Headteacher Laura Oakes to run the Rotary Junior Technology Tournament. This was demonstrated at a ‘Big Bang’ fair at the NEC, the UK’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people.
The tournaments are a challenging and enjoyable way for young people to enrich their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning. They are designed for 8 – 11 year olds, and in partnership with The Rochester Bridge Trust, Rotary provide an interesting and fun experience that tests the knowledge, innovation, team working and problem solving skills of the participants. The tournaments have been granted a CREST (Creativity in Science and Technology) award by the British Science Association.
The children, working in teams of four, had to solve an interactive technology task and were required to design, model and build a solution with materials such as paper, card, clothes pegs, string and elastic rubber bands, using a premade wooden base, all supplied by Rotary free of charge.
At Longleaze Primary School the task was to build a scale model of a bridge that would enable squirrels to cross a pathway in an environmentally friendly setting. The whole of year 5 (36 children) took part in the tournament. They were all fully engaged and enthusiastic throughout the sessions and the budding engineers set a high standard with their bridge building solutions. Gold and silver medals were awarded to the top two teams.. The winning team was ‘Team Bits & Bobs’ and the runner up ‘Team Timburr’.
The enjoyment was amply shown by some of the other amusing names the children had selected for their teams such as ‘Rocket Science’, ‘Gladiators’, and ‘Spooder Pig’! Headteacher Laura Oakes said ‘the children gained a lot from the event and we would love the Rotary Club to visit us again.’
Team leader Rotarian Richard Everitt who was accompanied by 4 other Rotarians from the club, said ‘it was very rewarding to see all the children having such fun and being so involved in a very friendly and competitive way.’
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