Education Today Education Today Magazine
The Bright Ideas Challenge is a new national, curriculum linked schools competition, which will challenge young people age 11-14 to assume the role of future scenarios planners and to use their STEM learning to imagine creative solutions to the types of energy challenges that cities in 2050 will face (by 2050 it’s estimated that 3 out of four of us will live in cities).
The winner of this national challenge will win up to £5000 to super-size the STEM learning experience at their school. 11 runners up teams will each receive £1500, tickets to the Make the Future festival (detail below) and tablets for each team member.
Shell’s hope is that the challenge will help young people to make the connection between their STEM learning and the ability to help shape the future and make a positive difference to real world issues. The challenge is just one of many initiatives that Shell is running in schools to encourage more young people from a greater range of backgrounds to further STEM learning and to consider STEM careers.
Young people enter the challenge in teams of up to five and have to submit a Bright Ideas Report and can further back up their idea with technical drawings, prototypes and up to 3 minutes of video.
The challenge is supported by a host of resources including videos and ice breaker practical challenges all of which can be found here:
www.shell.co.uk/brightideaschallenge
The competition closes on 29th April 2016.
Make the Future Festival: Make the Future is a four day festival of innovation and ideas coming to the Olympic Park in London this Summer. There young people and families will be able to see the brightest future energy ideas from around the world brought to life via a range of immersive experiences, shows and experiments. Schools can apply for free tickets for the first two days of the festival at http://www.shell.co.uk/mtfschools.
Each of the 11 running up teams in The Bright Ideas Challenge will receive tickets to this festival where the national winner of the challenge will be announced.
Shell Eco-Marathon: The Shell Eco-Marathon will be the showcase event of the festival. The iconic race which is now in its 30th year, will see students from all over Europe battling it out for the title of hyper-efficiency – seeing which team can travel furthest on a single litre of fuel in self-designed and self-built ‘cars of the future’. With the record standing at over 3,800km the stakes are high!
http://www.shell.com/global/environment-society/ecomarathon.html
