Ivanhoe College hosted their fourth annual S.T.E.A.M. Show event on Wednesday - and it was even bigger and more successful than before thanks to the school securing significant sponsorship from local businesses.

That allowed them to recognise the huge achievements of all of the participants as well as giving generous prizes to the award winners.

The S.T.E.A.M. Show gives students, aged 11-14, the opportunity to showcase their ingenuity, creativity and technical skills in Science, Technology, Engineering (including computing), Design(Art)s and Maths.

Working in teams, or individually, students are in complete control of their projects: from the choice of topic, through to how they tackle the workload.

Some students undertake research to further their knowledge, others conduct experiments to prove a hypothesis, many students will produce prototype products - there is no limit as to what they can do.

The College says it is proud to be able to say that the event is also completely inclusive, offering additional support where needed to help disadvantaged students and students with special educational needs meet their full potential.

On the day of the show the 49 students involved not only had to present their project to a panel of judges, but also entertain and inspire hundreds of year seven students as they gave them a sneak peek of their work.

At the main evening event, around 70 visitors, including representatives from businesses, the Town Council, school governors and family members, as well as past winners who have moved onto Ashby School, were able to browse the stalls and talk with students about their inspiration, the findings of their projects and even take part in hands on demonstrations.

The atmosphere at the evening event was amazing  one visitor said, " It is great to see pupils of different ages and abilities working together on these super projects. These are the skills that can't be learnt in a classroom.†

Ivanhoe College was delighted to welcome business representatives from Rolls Royce, 3M, Marstons Brewery, Schneider Electrics, B.S.I., Leicestershire Police and Stephenson College.

In addition representatives from Ashby Town Council; Chairman Councillor John Bridges and Mayor Graham Allman.

The College said it was a pleasure to be able to showcase their students in this way, and offer a unique opportunity for the visitors to speak first hand with them and be inspired by their young people.

Rosalind Smith from 3M, who has supported the event since its first year said: " As always it is a terrific event. You could never imagine how many wonderful ideas the students come up with to base their projects on, and the hard work is evident."

At 6pm, everyone gathered to discover who had won the awards. Head of School Mrs Allford said: "What an amazing body of work our students have created.

"Now entering our fourth year is it is hard to believe, but we have never seen a repeated project. We have been so impressed with the confidence of the students in their presentations and their hard work in getting everything completed for the event."

 

This year thanks to the sponsorship of Ashfield Cares, B.S.I., and the North West Leicestershire Safety Partnership the College was able to give Amazon vouchers and trophies to the prize winners, and in addition all of the students were presented with an Ivanhoe S.T.E.A.M. branded lapel pin to wear on their school blazers.

In addition Marstons Brewery, Tesco, Stephensons College and 3M provided vouchers and merchandise as additional prizes.

Mr Thornewill said: "For those students who haven't won an award this evening please know that those pins on your blazers are in no way a second prize, but instead an outward symbol of your dedication to going over and above which is everything that our school ethos, 'The Ivanhoe Way' symbolises, wear them with pride."

The Best in Show Award was sponsored by Rolls Royce for the third year running and was presented by Christian and Amy from Rolls Royce.

Amy said: "Last year we said it was the best year ever, but genuinely this year has topped it. We can't believe how the quality of the projects continues to rise each year.

"It is so important for Rolls Royce to be involved in these sort of event as the skills shown are at the very core of our business. We know that amongst you will be some of our future employees, and to give you a taste of what we do, we would love to invite all of the winners to join us again for a day at the Rolls Royce site in Derby."

 

The awards winners were:

• Computing Award – Maddy Groves, Amber Kendall and Emily Middle with a hands on demonstration of their VR Art Gallery visit program.

•Design Award  – Zillah Burgess and Katie Thistleton with their project developing a system to allow the blind and visually impaired to be able to vote independently and confidentially.

• Science Award – Eleanor-Kate Dennis, Karina Davies, Alannah Johnson, Millie McCauley, Alex Sirrell and Rebecca Webb with their investigation into DNA and the moral dilemmas of genetically modifying animals, plants and humans.

• Self-Manager Award kindly sponsored by North West Leicestershire Community Safety Partnership – Leilani Adams and Libby Brown, for their investigation into how colour influences our moods and decisions.

Creativity and Ingenuity Award kindly sponsored by Marstons Brewery – Lauren Fone and Jess Robertson-Dover for their project about Poaching and development of a electronic tracking device.

• Team Work Award kindly sponsored by Tesco Ashby – Noah Deacon, Elizabeth Webster, Olivia Bacon and Harriet Bond for their investigation into how fireworks work.

• Governor Award kindly sponsored by B.S.I. – Amelie Birtwistle, Matilda Birtwistle, Harriet Ellis for their investigation into aviation, from bird to machine.

• Honourable Mentions - Harry Booton and Alex Porzorski for their Rocket Science Project, and Hazel Jeffery, Sophie Robertson Dover and Eleanor Stevenson for a sports science project.

 

• The Rolls Royce Award for Best in Show went to Jack Kent and Jack Wheeler  who created an astonishing prototype of a domestic generator that could harness the water power of showers, taps and guttering to create electricity in the home. Councillor John Bridges was very impressed by the winning team. He said, "I have spoken to the lads and their families and I have passed my contact details on to them. I want to make some introductions to some companies as this is exactly the sort of technology we are wanting to introduce to new homes in the area. I'm excited to see where this can go."

 

Ivanhoe College thanked again all of the businesses who have supported them and to the families and teachers of our students that have encouraged them to follow their interests.

If any other local businesses would like to visit our Show next year, please email:[email protected]