Local students have shown their innovative streak by creating some incredible eco-homes as part of this year’s AWE Primary Science Challenge. Displaying great ingenuity and creativity, regional winners and runners-up from primary schools in Hampshire and West Berkshire have now been announced.
The Challenge forms part of AWE’s school’s outreach work and saw students design and build their dream eco-friendly home made from recycled items. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning has an emphasis on innovation, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Delivery of the Challenge was in partnership with Education Business Partnership (EBP) West Berkshire and EBP South, along with support from AWE’s STEM Ambassadors.
After sifting through the impressive entries, the AWE STEM Ambassador judges decided the Hampshire winners and runners-up were from Burnham Copse Primary School in Tadley. For West Berkshire the winners were from Woolhampton Primary School, with Brimpton Primary School the runners-up.
The winning schools and students were presented with a voucher to spend on STEM resources, along with an AWE Primary Science Challenge trophy created by one of AWE’s STEM Ambassadors, plus certificates.
Claire Lockwood, AWE’s Senior Manager Community Engagement, said: “Many congratulations to the winners and runners-up! Our judges were really impressed with the competition entries and the amount of thought and imagination that students had given when designing their eco-homes. By showing how much fun and creativity STEM offers, we hope to encourage more students to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics as a career and become the designers and innovators of the future.”
In addition to the eco-home competition, the Challenge also saw plenty of STEM inspiration with AWE STEM Ambassadors facilitating a number of interactive workshops for over 300 local students from years 4, 5 and 6. Both the workshops and the eco-home competition were aligned to this year’s World Environment Day theme of ‘Only One Earth’.