Students from Caedmon College Whitby Complete their STEAM Projects for this year’s ‘S Challenge’

 

The ‘S Challenge’ was created to influence students to research a subject of their choice and create a project considering aspects of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths).  When the students of Key Stage 3 finished their projects, they were asked to present in front of two judges, Kirsty Brown representing Caedmon College Whitby and a representative from SyntheSys.

This year’s competition brought many creative and insightful projects.  We would firstly like to congratulate all partakers of KS3 for making a step in their life to pursue their passion, as well as having the courage to present their findings in front of judges.  This is not an easy task, and we can congratulate them for showing such passion and initiative at such a young age.

Secondly, we would like to congratulate the joint winners of this year’s prize; Emily with her ‘Fast Fashion’ Project and Tristan’s Coding project.  Emily’s ‘Fast Fashion’ established many issues we face with the world today and how the fashion industry, specifically fast fashion, is contributing to the global climate.  We were blown away by her artistic representation of this matter which is why we gave her 1^st place.  Tristan’s coding project was inspired from an information and Communication Technology (ICT) lesson but the way he took his knowledge to the next level stunned the judges.  Tristan created a report that looked at the evolution of coding and his predictions on the future of technology.  On top of this report, Tristan created his own computer game that demonstrated his hard work and understanding of coding.  As both subjects showed great initiative and included multiple aspects of STEAM, we felt it was only fair to award 1^st place to both


Emily and Tristan.

Kirsty Brown, head of business studies at Caedmon College Whitby, spoke on this year’s challenge

“This is a fantastic opportunity for students to explore interests outside of the curriculum.  It allows them to develop their research, teambuilding, and presentation skills.  It was excellent to see such a diverse group of projects, and adding arts to the competition opened up new ways for students to present.  I am overjoyed with the entries we had this year, especially the winners Emily and Tristian, they produced work that we hadn’t seen in previous years and you could see the passion they had around their chosen topic.  A huge well done to everyone who took part and I am looking forward to continuing this project next year.”

Other special mentions include Dom, Toby and Angus with the Best Presentation award, Isaac with the Most Complex Topic award and Harry and Esme with the Examined Most Research award.  Very well done to you all.

John Hartas, Managing Director of SyntheSys, had this to say about this year STEAM challenge;

“This year’s projects, yet again, never failed to amaze the judges with the brilliant young minds of Caedmon College, Whitby.  It is always a pleasure to be able to work with the pupils to expand their knowledge on subjects they are passionate about.  All participants should be proud of their final products and I would like to congratulate them on being creative and having the courage to think outside the box.  I hope to see them all again next year.”