The winners of the ‘Big Science Event’ competition have been announced. 13 Oxfordshire primary schools and 50 pupils took part in the final at Science Oxford Live on 28th June.

Thomas Bradley, Hamish Harrison-Cushing and Rodolfo Neils-Gervasio from Year 5 at St. Aloysius Primary School won first prize with their experiment “Do ants like salty or sweet foods best?” They won grand prize of £1,500 worth of signature playground equipment for their school from Playforce. The prize is the largest prize that has ever been offered by the competition.

Olivia Rees and Jessie Robinson from Year 6 at West Oxford School placed a very close second with their experiment “What sort of stone makes the biggest splash?” This is the second year West Oxford School have placed in the top three.

Two teams were recognised by the judges as Highly Commended. Florence Amery. Matthew Ellis, Bryce Dobson and Maisie Matthews from Stadhamphton were Highly Commended their experiment “Can girls hear better than boys?”

Oscar Cronin, Leon Atherton, Dylan Haynes, Freya Cockerill and Emily Gregory-Clarke from Cropredy Primary were also Highly Commended with their experiment “Which eye colour sees the best?” The success of Cropredy Primary School was particular significant because their team from Year 2 were the youngest to participate in the final.

All competitors from the top four teams received a goodie bag complete with family ticket to Science Oxford Live, a science dictionary and a collection of science toys.

The Big Science Event is Oxfordshire’s county wide event celebrating the achievements of our youngest scientists. The competition, coordinated by Science Oxford, has grown from 30 participating schools and 3,000 students in 2011 to 40 participating schools and 5,600 students in 2012.

Natalie Ford, Big Science Event Coordinator, said “I was incredibly impressed by the standard of their work, a great deal of creativity, planning and enthusiasm had gone into all the experiments. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!”

Talking about the final of the Big Science Event the Managing Director of Playforce, Colin MacAdam, said “The enthusiasm and commitment of the Science Oxford staff was inspiring and the standard of presentations from children, as young as 5 years old, was outstanding. As a lapsed scientist myself, it was heart-warming to listen to fact-finding, problem-solving, observations and conclusions, all delivered with such passion. Choosing a ‘winner’ on such an inspiring day felt secondary to the realisation that everyone involved was a winner at such an uplifting event!”

For more information on this, and other Science Oxford school programmes, visit scienceoxfordnext.com

WHAT IS THE BIG SCIENCE EVENT?
The Big Science Event is a competition for primary schools, coordinated by Science Oxford. It was set up in 2009 to encourage more schools to give pupils an opportunity to design and carry out their own creative science investigations. In 2012 the competition is attracted entries from 5,600 students from 40 primary schools across Oxfordshire. Science Oxford is an independent charitable trust that was set up ‘to encourage the pursuit of science and enterprise’. It has been working with local schools for nearly 25 years and each year involves nearly 20,000 local school pupils with its educational programmes.

PLAYFORCE
Having worked with over 7000 schools and early years settings over the past 13 years, Playforce is the UK’s leader in the design and creation of innovative, curriculum-linked play environments for all children.

The Playforce designers work alongside practitioners, and of course children, to create everything from timber trails to outdoor classrooms and even non-fixed equipment to support the curriculum with innovative, award winning new range, Poddely. Our design team can also create bespoke equipment to meet your settings’ needs, ensuring your pupils benefit from all the outdoor environment offers. We have been lucky enough to win numerous awards for our designs, including a Gold 5 to 7 award for our Mini Beast Exploration Table.

www.bigscienceevent.org
www.playforce.co.uk