DT Rotary Challenge
The LGS Rotary Challenge is an organised DT competition, hosted by LGS but organised and sponsored by the Leicestershire Rotary Club.
The aim of the event is to raise the profile of the subject both within LGS and the wider community, as well as inspiring pupils to work collaboratively in a competitive environment to solve a real-world problem.
The event encourages interaction between schools and develops links between departments.
Aims
The aim of the event is to raise the profile of Design Technology, both within LGS and also the wider community, as well as inspiring pupils to work collaboratively in a competitive environment to solve a real-world problem.
The event encourages interaction between schools and develops links between departments.
Good attendance by pupils from a number of local schools is a critical factor for success, as well as returning schools, year on year.
The immediate beneficiaries are those pupils that attend, as well as their teachers.
Background
The Rotary Challenge has been running for around 12 years and the partnership between LGS and the Rotary Club was initiated by a previous Head of Design Technology.
Resources
The event used the foyer and main school hall at LGS for the entire day.
All members of DT staff completed two sessions each as pairs (rotated around across 3 sessions). Site services set up and helped clear down (3 staff). The DT technician was involved for collating materials and resources.
In terms of financial implications, biscuits, refreshments and lunch were provided for all of the teachers and Rotarians, to the cost of approximately £250. Additional supplies, e.g. box of glue sticks for the hot glue guns, totalled approximately £15. The other materials and resources were provided by the Rotary Club.
Impact
All of the judges and Rotarians commented on how great it was to see young people engaged in activities outside the classroom. They were also very impressed by the range of solutions that the pupils came up with.
The judges in particular made several comments about the importance of engaging young people in STEM based activities due to the lack of current talent in the UK jobs market.
The teachers from other schools also made similar comments.
The main outcome is that the profile of the subject is raised in all of the school involved - we also collected contact details from other staff to enable resource sharing etc. We are also intending to set up some sort of DT teacher meeting once NEA is complete for this year.
Pupil Involvement
From LGS: 2 teams in Year 9, 2 teams in Year 10, 2 teams in Year 12 - all with 4 pupils.
All other schools brought one team each from every age group.
Frequency
This is an annual event