Junior Technology Tournament 2023

The Rotary Club of Royal Wootton Bassett & District went along to St Bartholomew’s Primary Academy in Royal Wootton Bassett recently at the invitation of Headteacher Daniel Oakes to run the Rotary Junior Technology Tournament, which was demonstrated at a ‘Big Bang’ fair at the NEC, the UK’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people.

The tournaments are a challenging and enjoyable way for young people to enrich their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning. They are designed for 8 – 11 year olds, and in partnership with The Rochester Bridge Trust, Rotary provide an interesting and fun experience that tests the knowledge, innovation, team working and problem solving skills of the participants. The tournaments have been granted a CREST (Creativity in Science and Technology) award by the British Science Association.

The children, working in teams of five have to solve an interactive technology task and are required to design, model and build a solution with materials such as paper, card, clothes pegs, string and elastic rubber bands, using a premade wooden base, all supplied by Rotary free of charge.

At St Bartholomew’s Primary Academy the task was to build a scale model of a bridge that would enable squirrels to cross a pathway in an environmentally friendly setting. The children’s success was ably demonstrated at the end of the tournament when, among the tests to find a winning team, fans were used to see whether the model squirrels would be blown off the bridge in a gale!

The whole of year 5 at St Bartholomew’s Primary Academy (60 children) took part. They were all fully engaged and enthusiastic throughout the sessions and the budding engineers set a high standard with their bridge building solutions. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the top three teams. 

The enjoyment was amply shown by some of the amusing names the children had selected for their teams such as ‘The Screwdrivers’, ‘The Crafty Warriors’ and ‘The Wolf Pack’.

Headteacher Daniel Oakes said ‘the children gained a lot from the event and we would love the Rotary Club to visit us again.’

Team leader Rotarian Mark Mudd who was accompanied by 3 Rotarians from the club, said ‘it was very rewarding to see all the children having such fun and being so involved in a very friendly and competitive way.’