Challenge Report 2015

What a great day was had by all at the Locomotion Museum on Wednesday 21st October. After six weeks of hard work by the children from 12 local schools, they produced some very good models. Just about every mode of transport was represented and I think the past great engineers would have been very proud of them if they were still around. One of the models has greatly impressed some of the older modellers and it was entered into the NEMS open show in Darlington on Saturday 24th October and a report on the model will appear in the clubs magazine.

There were approximately 130 children present from the 12 schools, as unfortunately one school had to withdraw at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances but we hope to see them at the challenge next year.

Whilst the ambassadors from STEM were judging the models the children were occupied with the different activities around the museum.

Moira from Tomorrows Engineering had brought along some components for them to make buzz bots with googly eyes.

Shaun Stuart from Go Ahead Training brought some programmable robots for them to use.

Bowman from the institution of Mechanical Engineers brought his information stand and worksheets.

The Locomotion again did us proud with their treasure trails , opening up the train cabs for the children to explore and dressing up sections.

Joe and Sally once again brought their plastic meccano which was very popular with everyone young and old.

Steve our photographer was kept very busy throughout the day taking pictures to record this special day.

This year we were lucky to have a representative from the Caterpillar engineering firm to look at the work done by the children and to present the prizes for us.

From each school there was a first, second and third place award and the points for each model were totalled up and the school with the most points overall wins the perpetual trophy for the school to keep for a year and a shield for them to keep. This year the winning school got an extra prize as Greg Robson from Caterpillar has kindly said the winning school could have a trip to their factory. The date for this has yet to be arranged with the school. The winning schools this year were

• 1)  Easington Village C of E primary      490 points

• 2)  Yoden primary                         486 points

• 3)  Trimdon Village primary               483 points

• 4)  Acre Rigg Acadamy                     461 points

Each school was presented with a box of meccano kindly donated by N.E.M.S to help encourage the building as 3-4 of the schools have indicated they are going to start after school clubs.

Before they all left to return to their schools we asked if they would complete an evaluation sheet so we could see if there was anything we could improve on for next year. The feed back all seems to be positive.

Harry and I would like to extend a big thank you to all of those who have helped and supported us with this challenge, These include

Screenprint

A1 Trophies

Steve from Oak Photo in Horden

Moira from Tomorrows Engineering

Shaun Stuart from Go Ahead Training

Bowman and all the other S.T.E.M Ambassadors

Gregg and Kevin from Caterpillar

Pamela and her staff from the Locomotion Museum

N.E.M.S

Friends and family

With all this support we had a truly fantastic day.