What is it?
Shell’s free national schools’ competition for students aged 11-14 is designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. Use the films, ice-breaker activities and the teacher toolkit (also available in Welsh) to support your students in creating a solution to energy problems of future cities.
The Bright Ideas Challenge invites young people to use their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills to come up with ‘bright ideas’ for powering future cities and ensuring they are vibrant, healthy, clean places to live.
The competition asks students to use creativity, research skills and STEM knowledge to create an innovative solution to an issue that cities will face in 2050.
The Resource Navigation Guide explains simply and clearly how schools can deliver the competition across different time frames and settings. Entries can be completed in as little as 2.5 hours, and all the resources you need are available to download for free from the website.
There’s £45,000 worth of exciting STEM prizes on offer, including up to £5,000 to boost your school’s STEM offering, with winners from every region of England, Scotland and Wales taking home a piece of the prize money.
Moreover, also up for grabs is a funded, once-in-a-lifetime VIP STEM experience, which includes an expert-led prototyping session at a state-of-the-art makerspace in London.
The competition can also help if you’re looking for ways to embed careers in the curriculum, as the deadline for achieving the Gatsby Benchmarks approaches.
So it’s time to assemble teams of up to five students aged 11-14 and get your thinking caps on!
The deadline for entries is 5pm on Friday, 24 April 2020.
Check out some photos from last year’s VIP STEM experience and see the winners’ bright ideas on the website.
Need to Know
- The Bright Ideas Challenge is designed to spark young people’s curiosity in science and engineering and to help you deliver the curriculum in a fun and engaging way.
- Enter, and your school could win the chance to take their ideas to the next level in prototyping sessions with real engineers at a state-of-the-art makerspace.
- Prizes include up to £5,000 for your school to supersize its STEM offering, and vouchers for individual team members.
“The resources are all free and a fantastic starting point to launch the competition with students… It’s also totally cross curricular.”
Science teacher
National champion winning school
Contact
shell.co.uk/sustainability/society/supporting-stem/bright-ideas-challenge.html shellschoolsteam@hopscotchconsulting.co.uk
