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Students compete in STEM national final, in Aberdeen!

17th May 2018

On Sunday the 13th of May, a group of 6 Year 9 students boarded a train at Truro headed for Aberdeen, 4 trains (including the London Undergound) and 16 hours later they arrived!

The final itself was a really well organised day, and saw our students competing along side teams from Portsmouth, Sutton, Newcastle and St. Andrews. In the morning, student's were able to pitch themselves against the various STEM challenges offered by the Aberdeen Science Centre, which included piloting a ROV, trying to construct a hub using touch and a camera alone and all importantly the testing of our windmill.

Prior to the final, the students had spent the past 6 week's constructing a floating windmill, which was capable of producing electricity in a simulated offshore environment. Unfortunately, the testing didn't go entirely to plan, due to the differences between the Test tank and the kits provided to schools, all teams had trouble floating their windmills, but unfortunately for us, the high sides of the tank and high placement of our fans meant it was difficult for our windmill to catch the wind.

In the afternoon, the competition moved to BP's North Sea Headquarters where students had to deliver a Dragons Den style pitch to a panel judges made up of representatives from BP, SAAB, Oceaneering, SMD and SubseaUK. Our students gave a very honest account of why their windmill had not performed as well as hoped in the morning, and how they would modify their design to improve the performance of their windmill.

However, despite this, it was not quite enough to turn around the morning, and the team from Newcastle were crowned deserving winners. It was an excellent experience of all concerned and the College would like to congratulate the students for the efforts and achievements in reaching the final.