A Stamford student and Old Stamfordian have reached the final of the '
Amazon Longitude Explorer Competition'.Congratulations to Year 10, Sophie Farr, and Old Stamfordian, Olga Kryl, who have reached the finals of the competition, which aims to ‘bring more recognition and diversity to STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) industries'. Browse all 40 finalists of the competition
here.
The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize, delivered by innovation foundation Nesta Challenges, supports participants to learn creatively about STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) whilst developing new entrepreneurial life-skills to turn their bright ideas into real-world solutions. Teams were asked to create solutions based on one of four prize themes:- Living Longer – technological solutions to support an ageing population.
- Living Healthier – technological solutions that help people live happier and healthier lives.
- Living Greener – technological solutions that tackle pollution and climate change.
- Living Together – technological solutions that help people stay better connected in a way that is easy, safe and environmentally friendly, as well as solutions to deliver more sustainable transport.
Both Stamford students were inspired to enter the 'living greener' category of the competition together during lockdown in February 2021.The students proceeded to the finals with their idea ‘ElectDoor’, which was developed after 'countless hours of video calling to brainstorm ideas'. 'ElectDoor' is a proposed kinetic energy havester/sensor, which would be able to accumulate energy from the movement of doors opening and closing to generate electricity which could be used and stored.Sophie reflects on their experience:"We were excited at how creative the Amazon competition was, as its broad topics allowed us to freely research things we are interested in”.“So far, the process has been enriching and inspired us to do further research, not just into STEM but also considering other aspects of the field such as marketing, business proposals and communicating to the wider population. I would definitely argue that entering this competition has been invaluable for my progress in other subjects: I have been able to practice my written communication skills and logical thinking while applying the science I have learnt at school”.“Having been preparing since February for our entry, it was fantastic to hear that our project was selected as a finalist. Mrs Peterson, Head of Lower School Scholars and my brilliant chemistry teacher, helped us by being our teacher contact and has offered a lot of time and support moving forward into our preparation for the finals”.“Olga and I were determined to not allow her moving to Milan to obstruct our entry, lockdown in the UK has been good practice for working online as a team. We regularly video call to ensure both parties are up to date with any progress, and this has allowed us to keep communicating despite now being in different schools and countries”.“It is amazing to see how our hard work has paid off and we are excited to continue to work on this project to build upon what we have already learnt and, hopefully have more success with ‘ElectDoor’ in the future”.For more news about science at the Stamford Schools, please click
here.
