TeenTech City

Two teams of Year 7 students took part in the TeenTech City finals at the Emirates Stadium in London. Prior to the event they had designed and built miniature models of future buildings that would make a city smarter, kinder and safer. These had to be buildings that they would like to live or a public building for social, retail, sport, business, transport, cultural, entertainment, educational or health purposes. Each team had to consider global challenges such as energy, extreme weather, health and happiness and provide some answers to these within the design and construction of their models. This was followed by a consideration of what materials might be used such as self-cleaning surfaces, reflective tiles and bio roofs to name a few. Each team brainstormed a number of ideas using a range of categories such as ‘most fun building’, ‘best domestic space’ and ‘most environmentally friendly building’. Once each team had agreed on their entered category, they then worked collaborative and innovatively to turn designs into models using recyclable materials such as cereal packets, foil, straws and cardboard tubes.

After careful transportation of their models across Reading and London on bus, train and underground, they displayed their work which would later be judged by industry leaders and media celebrities including Maggie Philbin and Dallas Campbell.

The event began with an impactful video of how technology can support large cities such as Rio to make the city safer by assisting with massive operations such as the city’s waste network. They then undertook two workshops – a construction challenge involving spaghetti to try to elevate as many jelly babes as possible and a construction task to build a model of a future car with inspiration from the Bloodhound SSC. Valuable knowledge about engineering was gained in these two contrasting activities where they were about to take their miniature prototypes and consider how their designs harnessed their current knowledge and how new knowledge would enable them to make refinements to make more secure structures and faster cars. This was followed by a Microbit challenge provided by Microsoft where they learnt how to create safe solutions using microprocessors and motors using an online block-based programming environment. Using computational thinking one team created an intelligent crossing system using individual LEDs and the on-board LED board of the Microbit whereas another team produced a solution using a servo and an accompanying caution system.

The Year 7s were then treated to a tour of the Emirates stadium where they had access to VIP lounges, director’s boxes and even visited the home team changing rooms, the tunnel out onto the field and access to manager and coaching staff seating areas. Then it was back to work where both teams prepared their presentations, took hold of their notes and pitches their models to a panel of experts. They described choices they made, explained how their solutions were smart and how they made people’s lives more enjoyable and how they had incorporated sustainable components. They took questions from the judges and were able to use their knowledge of STEM from the morning activities and reflect on their journeys to the completion of their models to provide necessary answers.

At the eagerly awaited award ceremony both teams were delighted that they had winning entries in two categories – the most fun building and the most innovative building. This was testament to the inspired and collaborative work of both teams.

"When we went around the stadium because we had a lot of fun."

"The judging, as I thought it was really fun and I loved explaining how the building worked. I also really enjoyed the goody bags because they were REALLY good!!"

"The tour around the stadium because it was nice to know what is there and what it looks like!"

"I really enjoyed finding about all the different STEM jobs as it showed you that you can do something really important to help our world in the future."