A team of six Year 9 girls from Dame Alice Harpur School, Bedford, have won the Go4Set - Go for Science, Engineering and Technology - competition.
Go4SET is a national competition run by the Engineering Development Trust (EDT) which sets out to encourage students to follow science and engineering as a career choice. For the 2010 - 2011 academic year URS/Scott Wilson sponsored Dame Alice Harpur School, a local all girls school in Bedford. Jenni Stout acted as mentor for URS/Scott Wilson and part of this role visited the school on a regular basis over a 10 week period, organised a company visit and accompanied the group at the Start Up and Celebration days.
The competition sets a brief for a group of six, year 9 (aged 13) students. This year the brief was to look at recycling in the school and find a way to reduce waste, make money and help the environment. For children of this age being given a brief rather than a direct question is quite daunting. Jenni's role as company mentor was to assist the group in developing their thoughts and ideas and pose questions to help the girls with their research. She also helped in deciding on a topic for there project, taught them appropriate skills to complete the project, ensured they worked in accordance with the brief and produced a quality project. Throughout the process she made them aware that the skills they were learning were skills that are also important in work related situations.
The pupils chose two topics for their project, the first to make biodeisel from waste cooking oil and the second to recycle their school uniform. The school is merging with another school next academic term, therefore all pupils will require a new uniform. The school uniform will be collected by the Salvation Army and sent to developing country's. The Salvation Army have agreed to pay 20p per kilo therefore satisfying the making money from recycling criteria.
During the 10 week period the students produced a report, posters, models and prepared a presentation. The reports were sent off in advance for the assessors to review prior to the final Celebration day. At the Celebration day the students saw for the first time what all the other schools had been working on as they set up a stand displaying their posters and models. Each school had to give a 15minute presentation on their project with a questions and answers session at the end. All the schools were assessed throughout the day and everyone was totally thrilled when Dame Alice Harpur School was placed 1st .
Picture by Clive N Totman Photographs