School teams from Edinburgh, The Lothians and Stirling attended Heriot-Watt University on 12th March to compete in their regional Go4SET Celebration and Assessment Day (CAD). Wallace High School's hydro project was selected by the judges as the winner of the Best Overall Project. The team's outstanding project on saving water in their school led to them being presented with a trophy and a cheque for £250 by Duncan McSporran, Director of EDT Scotland. The team will now compete in the Go4SET Scottish Final at the Scottish Parliament on the 16th May.
High levels of creativity
Kevin McCullough, Director of Teaching and Learning at the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, was an assessor at the event.
Kevin commented, "We were delighted to host Go4SET Celebration and Assessment Day. Congratulations not only to Wallace High School, Royal High School and Linlithgow Academy but to all the participating teams who demonstrated very high levels of creativity, problem solving and enthusiasm. The assessors had a very challenging but interesting task in reviewing the projects!"
Wallace High School were supported and mentored by Lynne James - Senior Well Engineer at Dart Energy, who said, "We are delighted to have worked with Wallace High on such a worthwhile engineering project. The pupils worked very hard, showed initiative and implemented an excellent water saving solution within their school. We are very proud of their success!"
At the event the students displayed their individual projects and solutions to a group of assessors and discussed their projects with guests attending the event. The other award winners at the event were The Royal High School, supported by Morrison Construction, who won the Best Team Work Award and a cheque for £150, and Linlithgow Academy supported by ARUP who won the Students Choice Award and a cheque for £100.
The assessors had a very challenging but interesting task in reviewing the projects!
Go4SET Water project
The Go4SET Water project began at the launch event in November 2013 and the teams of six 12 to 14 year olds (S2) continued to work with their teacher on the challenging 10-week project, while being mentored by scientists and engineers selected from the complete spectrum of STEM disciplines. They also gained industrial experience with their company in order to derive a more thorough understanding about their project. Work-related learning and team working lies at the heart of the Go4SET experience.
Sponsors delighted to support
Viridor sponsored the Go4SET the CAD event in Edinburgh and Martin Grey, Scottish Communications Manager said; "As Scotland's leading recycling, renewable energy and sustainable waste partner working with 96% of local authorities we are keen to encourage young people to get involved in energy management. Viridor are delighted to support the Go4SET programme across Scotland, challenging young people to think about their environment and future. Like Viridor, young people are committed to their environment and conscious of how they utilise resources."
Duncan McSporran, EDT Director for Scotland commented "This dynamic and innovative curriculum based programme has proved to significantly change the perception of young people on careers and opportunities within science and engineering industries."