Bringing together business, education and students

The winners of this years competition were;

1st:  St Andrew’s, Meads - £100.00 and Young Engineers Trophy
2nd:  St. Thomas a Becket Junior School - £50.00
3rd:  West Rise Junior School - £25.00
Judge’s Design Prize:  St. Bede’s Preparatory School – K-Nex Kit
Mayor’s Team Prize:  The Lindfield School – K-Nex Kit

The organisers are grateful to the judges from the sponsoring pump firms, namely, Colin Raley and Lee Metalle (Alfa Laval Pumps) and Sam Cheetham and Adam Pye (HMD Seal/less Pumps).  The judging was co-ordinated by Science and Engineering Ambassador Derek Leppard for Eastbourne EBP.

Special thanks are also due to Eastbourne Theatres and JWD Enterprises who helped with tables and St. Bedes Preparatory School (www.stbedesschool.org) who once again provided their Sports Hall as the venue.

The Worshipful The Mayor, Cllr Greg Szanto, attended the event to present certificates and prizes to the winners.

The challenge involved teams of 4 Year 6/7 pupils from 17 Eastbourne Schools (see below).  Following an introduction to simple machines by STEM Sussex - levers, pulleys, wedges, inclined planes and the wheel and axle the teams had to first create a marble run that would make a marble go as slowly as possible down an inclined tea tray.  This got the teams working together and ready for the main event!   The teams were challenged to design and build a complex machine that would move a marble into a plastic cup – without touching epithet the marble or the cup.  Most of the teams completed the challenge with some imaginative and machines presented to the judges for testing.

Whilst the pupils were busy, their teachers participated in a challenge of their own, organised by Janet Czajkowska from Science and Technology Plus.  They also had to solve the marble challenge but using K-Nex construction components. 

Following the retirement of ‘Old Fred’ last year this was the first time that STEM Sussex had provided the challenge for Eastbourne EBP and everyone agreed that the day had been a great success and looked forward to the next challenge that will be held on Friday 29th January 2010.

Participating schools were: St. John’s Meads, Pevensey & Westham, The Lindfield, Stone Cross, West Rise Junior, Tollgate, Bourne, Shinewater, St. Bedes Preparatory, Ocklynge, St. Andrews Meads, St Thomas a Becket Junior, Willingdon Community, Parkland Junior and Hankham.