Tees Valley Schools STEM Problem Solving Championship 2015
On the 11th June 2015, I and another 4 students went to the ‘heats’ round of
the competition as a team. I went to the competition, Omar, Josh, Sarah and
Jaskaran went with me as well. Tutors Debbie and Stephanie took us.
We had to do 3 challenges in the ‘heats’.
1.
The Trebuchet challenge:
We had to make a Trebuchet using plastic spoons, rubber bands and
lollipop sticks. We also had to fire gummy sweets into a bowl. The outer
bowl would earn you £25 and the inner ring would earn you £100 if you
managed to shoot them in. We spent an imaginary £51. I was the
manager, Jaskaran tied the bands, Josh took the shots for us and Sarah
and Omar helped with holding the sticks together. We made a bit of a loss
as we didn’t manage to get any sweets in but we did make a good
trebuchet.
2.
The Paper Rocket Challenge:
We had to make a Paper Rocket, a black cap and tape. Sarah, Omar and
Josh made 1 rocket while I and Jaskaran made the other. After that we
had to wear goggles and a glove to turn a switch to start the air blower
that would send the rocket flying. I think the furthest any of our rockets got
was about 7 metres. We did really well to get that! We had a Cookie
before doing the 3rd challenge! Yummy!
3.
The Small Wooden Car Race:
We had to shape a block of wood into a shape that would make the car go
fast. We took turns on everything that we did.
After shaping the car, we had to put it on a track where you pressed a
button when the green light came on. Our team and our opponents
practised before the actual race. I pressed the button last! The cars went
very fast! Whoosh!
After that, we filled in a feedback form with our pens that we could keep.
We gave our feedback forms to a colleague who helped with the
competition.
We had a splendid time and would love to move on to the next round.
Madison McAlpine
6AP