Pupils reach final of TeenTech Awards 2015 

Ysgol Glan-y-Môr is extremely proud of its two teams who have won through to the finals of the 2015 TEEN TECH Awards. This is a national competition open to all secondary school children aged 11 to 16 across the UK. The competition involves pupils working in teams of no more than three to develop innovative ideas to “improve everyday life.”

The project started back in January with the whole of year 8 pupils involved in an innovation day where they produced initial ideas for the competition which were judged by a panel of engineers from Coleg Sir Gar and Paul Griffiths an engineer from INA Bearings Shaeffler. Four teams were selected on the day to carry their ideas forward for entry in the national competition. Over the last couple of months the four teams have worked hard to develop their ideas and have been supported by both local industry and further education.  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassadors from industry have come into school to offer expertise, both Coleg Sir Gar and Gower College have been extremely supportive and the pupils have made industry research visits to both INA Bearings and SPECIFIC.

All four teams achieved success with one team being awarded a Bronze award and one a Silver with two teams not only winning Gold awards but also being selected for the finals in London on 22^nd June at the Royal Society where they will meet Prince Andrew, TEEN TECH’s Patron.

The two teams who have gone through to the finals are Team Jewel: Jennifer Grant, Wiktoria Swiatkowska and Emily Gregory who have developed an idea for a solar powered bench which would incorporate a touch screen information point and a USB charging point and Team A-Brains, Lewis Ellar, Charlie Hall and Bradley Webb who have been developing an automatic sensor guidance system for wheelchairs for people who have very limited mobility but who would like to maintain as much independence as possible.

The two teams are very excited about their success and as well as working hard to refine and develop their ideas even further in preparation for the finals are planning what to say when meeting HRH Prince Andrew.

The project has proved to be an excellent opportunity for education and industry to work together and given our pupils an insight into potential career paths within STEM subjects.

Please click on the link below
https://twitter.com/solarbench

Please click on the link below for Teen Tech highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSh7CdaaOwI