In September the first ever McLaren High STEM Festival was held at the school.  We hosted 44 pupil projects covering a huge range of topics from across Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.  This was not just a celebration of the fantastic work that our pupils do in their own time for STEM; it was also a qualification heat for the Big Bang Competition UK Finals. 

 

As a school we are really proud to announce that McLaren High School will have more projects represented at the finals than any other school in the UK – seven of our pupil projects have been selected to compete against over 200 others in the UK National Final.  Given the size, selection process and financial capability of other schools in the UK this is a tremendous achievement for McLaren High and further evidence of how we are leading the way in developing young people for careers in the STEM industries.

 

The pupils who will be going to the Big Bang UK Finals in March 2019 are:

 

Ellie Ridgewell                How Your Garden Grows                                       A study into Hydroponics

 

Niamh Gillespie               Aurae                                                                    A study into micro wind turbines

 

Euan Murphy                   Coding with Games                                               A gaming environment to encourage younger    

                                                                                                                        people to learn coding

 

Max Eastland                  Electric Skateboard                                               An engineering project looking at creating an electric                                                                                                                                                                                     version of a skateboard

 

Fiona Campbell               Beast from the Yeast                                             A study into identifying which household products inhibit                                                                                                                         or stimulate the growth of bakers’ yeast.

 

Jack Mitchell                   Nutritional Value of Sea Lice                                 A study into whether sea lice could be used as fish food

 

Cameron Harvey, Bruce McKechnie,                                                         A group study into the viability of a collapsible drone which

Matthew Murray & Andrew Twigg                                                              could be repurposed as shelter

 

The STEM team are all exceptionally proud of all those who competed in the STEM Festival and wish to thank all our parents for supporting the pupils to produce such fantastic projects.