Dragons seek ingenious science projects

Although Bright Spark Awards organiser, the KM Charity Team, has urged schools not to be put off from entering by fears that their projects are not sufficiently ambitious.

Awards coordinator Hannah Hawksworth stressed that entries can continue to be tweaked and modified once entered, but would only be in the running if they are received by 31 May.

Project Earthquake - extended cut from Inspire Schools on Vimeo.

She said: “The whole point of the Bright Spark Awards is they give young people the opportunity to get excited about science, technology, engineering and maths by putting their knowledge of and enthusiasm for these subjects to practical effect - and it’s often those ideas that seem the most simple that can be the most effective.”

Last year, the competition was won by Zubair Asim and Kevin John from Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury. They impressed the judges with a project designed to improve earthquake prediction by monitoring ambient radiation.

Speaking after the project’s win, Zubair said: “It feels amazing to come up with this idea and then to progress it massively into something that has massive potential for the future for earthquake detection.”

Now the search is on to find projects of a similar scope for the 2019 awards and schools are being encouraged to get their pupils to start working on their entries now.

The Bright Spark Awards encourage teams to use cross-curricular skills in maths, IT, science and engineering in innovative and creative initiatives. They are open to Primary and Secondary schools and there are three categories: innovation, investigation and invention.

Previous inventions have ranged from the perfect bath bomb to a GPS-tracker shoe - and even a navigation device for the blind. Investigations are similarly diverse having looked at the effect of classical music on short-term memory, guinea pigs on exam-related stress and microplastics on the environment.

Finalists will be invited to a Dragons’ Den-style event at Discovery Park in Sandwich in July, during which videos detailing the projects will be shown before teams are quizzed by a panel of judges.

The panel includes Atkins Global, Megger, Global Associates, Pfizer, Discovery Park, BAE Systems, The ITL Group, EduKit, Highways England and Golding Vision, and they will present a range of prizes to the teams with the overall champions receiving £500.

Ms Hawksworth said: “Zubair and Kevin set the bar extremely high last year with their earthquake project and everybody involved in organising and judging the awards was bowled over by what they came up with. I hope other young people with an interest in Stem subjects can use their achievement as an inspiration.”

Submit entries and find out more about the competition at the KM Bright Sparks Awards website

Contact Details

Hannah Hawksworth
Telephone: 08442 640291
Email: hhawksworth@thekmgroup.co.uk