"We came, we dunked, we conquered!"
A genius team of Year 10 students from Queen’s Park High School were one of three schools in the country chosen as a runner up winner of the Young Science Award at The Big Bang National Finals in Birmingham during British Science Week 2019.
The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition is a national competition for young people to showcase their impressive science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects and to reward and recognise their achievements.
The semi-finals for this competition took place at The Big Bang North West in Liverpool last year where a team of budding scientists and engineers in Year 10 from Queen’s Park High School were thrilled to be announced as one of the finalists for their ingenious & inspirational idea – the biscuit dunking machine.
The Queen's Park team
The students have been investigating which biscuit is best to dunk in a cup of tea without it falling apart. To do this, they have designed and built a biscuit dunking machine which will systematically dunk the biscuit into a brewed cup of tea. Students have been working on analysing data from their results to create their own 'ultimate, invincible biscuit' that is perfect for dunking!
Team members, Rory Jones and James Fawcett said: “Much blood, sweat, tears and biscuits have gone into this project. The soldering and circuitry was challenging to get our heads around but we had a Eureka moment when we installed an electronic counter to finally perfect the dunker mechanism.”
Since winning the regional heats they have been hard at work refining and developing the project further during after school STEM club ready to compete, share their ideas and wow the judges in the Grand Final at the National Big Bang Fair in Birmingham.
On 13th – 16th March the team of seven, comprising Beth Henderson Palmer, Kiara Parlevliet, Maddy Lewis, James Fawcett, Adam Thomas, Tyler Gordon and Rory Jones travelled to Birmingham to compete against other finalists from around the country and eagerly showcased their innovative machine in action to captivated audiences and a shrewd judging panel.
The award
Maddy Lewis said - 'It was great to work as a team and present our exciting project to the judges and other competitors'.
Miss Finola Sutton, Achievement Leader for Science and STEM Club Co-ordinator, said: “This is the second consecutive year Queen's Park High School has successfully made it into the Big Bang National final. This is testament to the hard work, creativity and dedication of our students. We are also extremely grateful for the support from Trajan Science and Medical who have generously funded the team’s travel to the National Finals in Birmingham.”
After three busy days amazing the judges with their original invention the Year 10 team were not only nominated for the much coveted Competitors’ Choice Award but also announced as Runners Up in the prestigious Junior Science Award – one of only three schools out of the country to gain this accolade.
Miss Sutton added: It's fantastic to see that the year of hard work on this project has paid off and that this was recognised by the judges. Students are now planning to send their research to McVites so that they can share their results on the ultimate biscuit."
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