STEM Challenge

Posted at 2:31 pm on 27th June, 2022

At Flixton Girls School (FGS) we inspire students to discover their talents and fulfil their potential through our founding principles of aspiration, empowerment and excellence. These principles are at the heart of life at FGS, ensuring that each individual is able to achieve their personal best. 

By providing outside the classroom experiences and challenges learners are able to put into practice their learnt skills and expand their own personal learning journey.

We therefore couldn’t be prouder of our year 9 STEM challenge participants who became the Manchester Regional winners of the Global Underwater Hub STEM Challenge. Congratulations to the winning team: Sophie Bowman, Daisy Taylor, Freya Thompson, Simardeep Kaur Singh, Daniella Villavicencio and Amber Rushton.

The group stepped up to the challenge of building a small robot with ultrasonic, colour and touch sensors and also involved drawing up marketing materials, costings and a pitch; in front of six other schools. They were recognised for their great set of ideas and outstanding teamwork.

Following the regional event our team travelled up to Scotland, by Loganair, to Aberdeen for the National Finals which were held at the P&JLive Conference Centre. Mrs Trussell, Headteacher and Mr Atwell, Science Teacher, who escorted the students said, ‘We’re so excited for this @GUH_News STEM competition! The Loganair flight was efficient & smooth. Pam’s customer service was great! Thanks Loganair for making our trip to Aberdeen so pleasurable!

The event commenced with a tour of the facilities within the Global Underwater Hub, which allowed students to see the latest feats of engineering and provided inspiration for the competition; which began the following morning.

All six finalist schools, from across the United Kingdom, were introduced to the next stage of the competition and over the course of three hours all groups worked on a variety of activities to ensure they completed the tasks set and were able to put together their best pitch, model and advertising campaign.

Student comments, ‘We had a great experience.’ ‘I really enjoyed the activities during both the regional and the finals events.’ ‘It was good seeing what the engineering industry had to offer for future career options.’

Mrs Trussell said, ‘Congratulations to our award winner year 9 students, you fought off the competition and did yourselves and the school proud. You displayed aspirational qualities throughout, well done!’