A Surrey school's students' enthusiasm for science and engineering earned them a prestigious award at a regional science fair. Students from Sir William Perkins School, Chertsey, won the Coast to Capital STEM Club of the Year award at the Big Bang South East fair after two teams from the school submitted projects.
A team comprising 14-year-olds Mirren Black, Katharine Brewster, Alexandra Oprisan, Caitlin Pittol-Neville, Rebecca Sproston and Georgia Summerhill entered a project called "Keeping warm and keeping hydrated," in which they looked at the design of suitable clothing for workers in Arctic conditions.
Judges praised their "great enthusiasm" and "good experimentation and presentation skills."
Sophie Coulson, Sam Eliot, Lucy Gates, Sarah Phillips, Millie Wills and Pui Lan Zhang, all aged 17, submitted a project in which they looked at the design of a renewable propulsion system for a large oil tanker.
Their work, said judges, was "extremely thorough," adding that they had taken "a creative approach in evaluating less well known and less developed technologies."
Jonathan Sharrock, Chief Executive of the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, said: "It was great to be able to support such as inspiring event which encourages thousands of young people to explore and enjoy science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
"This will help towards our goal of closing the skills gap we have in our region so our businesses will have a wealth of home-grown talent to recruit and train in the future."
The fifth annual Big Bang South East fair and the regional Young Scientists and Young Engineers Competition were organised by STEM Sussex, the outreach support department of the University of Brighton.
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