Winning projects

for the project Food for the 21st century - making a difference: Working collaboratively with sixth formers, STEM professionals and members of the local community, my school’s project has focussed on three sustainable development goals -2 zero hunger, 3 good health and well-being and 13 climate action. We have investigated if it is possible to grow food at our school all year round, reducing food miles, promoting healthy food choices and prompting scientific lines of enquiry. This project is relevant to students every-day life. Through innovative approaches it has encouraged a love of gardening, improved working scientifically skills and has had a positive impact with all children, particularly those with additional needs.

Patron of the theme was GasNet.

for the project "Defying" Gravity!: The present work intends to introduce students to the phenomenon of stroboscopy through a STEM teaching approach. Students study the free fall of a water droplet by using the storboscopic principles. By changing the frequency of the flashes of LEDs, they observe that water droplets "defy" the law of gravity. Thus, depending on the frequency of flashes, the drops might appear stationary or even move upwards. In addition to the low-cost construction and observation of this very impressive phenomena, students also take measurements and by using the free fall equations adapted to the problem data, they finally calculate the acceleration of gravity with very good accuracy.

Patron of the theme was CZC.cz.

for the project Dizziness from the windmill: The aim of this project is to show the mutual exchange of different types of mechanical energy while driving windmills, i.e. buildings with wings. While realizing the project we were looking for an answer to the question: How can a windmill rotor be set in motion? Participants constructed models of various types of windmills, which were driven by such forces as air, water, elasticity or gravity.

Patron of the theme was Eduzměna.

for the project Create and code your own artful cardboard robot (artful cardboard-bot): First, the students create their own two-wheel robots made of cardboard. Next, they decorate them with many different materials, using a hot glue gun. This leads to a great variety of individual, artful cardboard bots. As the materials are very cheap and easily available, students may carry out further projects at home. Second, the students are introduced to coding in general and the coding of a single-board computer (Calliope mini) to make their robots move. The programming language is NEPO, which is similar to Scratch, a block-based programming language. Since the project focuses on creativity, skilled manual work (soldering), and programming, it attracts both girls and boys.

Patron of the theme was GZ Media.

for the project How long does it take to "cook yourself" in a closed car: This project is based on a real situation, follows up on frequent media reports. The basic objective is to measure the rate of temperature rise inside a car. The project brings surprising results to children, and it is very attractive concerning the tools used and the topic of the problem. The whole project is easily gradable. It is easy to adjust the difficulty and breadth of the assignment as well as the options and techniques according to the age and abilities of the children. There is a link between the physical problem and critical thinking concerning the content of the media message and the use of knowledge of biology.

Patron of the theme was Roche.