Glasgow Science Festival

The competition has four stages;

• Classroom Challenge: Pupils compete in their teams of TWO to find a winning team from their school
• Cluster Challenge (Quarter-final): The winning team/s from each school progress to compete against other winning teams from schools in their cluster
• Regional Challenge (Semi-final): The winning* team from each cluster progresses to compete against other cluster winners from schools in their area / region
• West of Scotland Final (Grand finale): Regional winners are invited to compete against each other at the University of Glasgow to determine the 2020 Creating Engineers champions

*If your cluster has six or more primary schools taking part in the competition then both the winning team and runners-up will progress to the Regional Challenge.

NB: Only teams consisting of TWO pupils can progress beyond the Classroom Challenge stage.

The competition is open to all primary school clusters in the West of Scotland, preferably with the support of their local secondary school.
Teams must be made up of TWO pupils only and can consist of P5 pupils, P6 pupils or a mix of the two.
Primary schools must liaise with other schools in their cluster and only only one application per cluster should be submittted.

This must be submitted by Friday 10th January 2020.

• Competition Entry: Entries to be submitted by 10th January 2020.
• Classroom Challenge: to be held as soon as possible - January / February 2020: organised and run by the competing primary school using a Challenge of your choice (examples on our website in the resources section).
• Cluster Challenge (quarter-final): to be held before Wednesday 8th April 2020*: this is usually organised by the 'cluster contact' and hosted by your feeder secondary school using a Challenge set by Glasgow Science Festival. This will be sent to the Cluster Contact by the end of January.
• Regional Challenge (semi-final): Organised and hosted by Glasgow Science Festival and to be held in the following venues across the following four regions in 2020: 
  
  
  • Ayrshire : Ayrshire College, Kilmarnock Campus : Friday 8th May 2020 : CANCELLED
  • Glasgow : City of Glasgow College : Tuesday 12th May 2020 : CANCELLED
  • Lanarkshire : South Lanarkshire College, EK Campus : Thursday 14th May 2020 : CANCELLED
  • Dumfries & Galloway: Maxwell House, Dumfries : Friday 15th May 2020 : CANCELLED
    
• West of Scotland Final (grand finale): Organised by Glasgow Science Festival, hosted by the University of Glasgow and will run during the Glasgow Science Festival in June 2020:
  
  
  • University of Glasgow : St Andrews Building : Thurs 4th June 2020 : CANCELLED

*Cluster Challenge winners' details must be submitted using the online form by Thursday 9th April 2020. If we don't receive this information by then it will mean your pupils can't progress to the next stage. CANCELLED

nb: If your cluster has 6 or more primary schools taking part both the Winners and Runners up from the Cluster Challenge will be invited to the Regional Challenge.  Otherwise, we ask for the runners up details to act as reserves if required.

• To enter the competition, all schools (including the secondary) within a cluster must liaise and discuss if they wish to take part. Note that not all schools in the cluster need to participate in order for the cluster to apply. Even one school can enter.
• Each cluster must agree on and appoint a nominated person as the 'cluster contact'. E.g. the EEO officer or local EDO contact or a class teacher.
• This nominated person will complete the application form on the cluster's behalf, receive communication about the Challenge as it progresses and be responsible for liaison within the Cluster.
• P5 and p6 pupils are both able to participate. It's up to the school who they want to involve in the competition.
• Once your cluster has entered you are free to arrange the classroom challenge. You will find all you require to do this in our Resources section. We ask that this challenge is held within the spirit of the competition. ie. pupils work in teams of two; the pupils are given one hour to complete the challenge; the models are judged using the criteria on the judging sheet (see the resource section).
• For the next stage in the competition, you will be sent an electronic cluster pack for use in the cluster challenge. This contains the challenge, judging sheet, information sheet and pupil certificate template.
• STEM Ambassadors are volunteers from industry and academia with a passion for STEM that can bring their expertise to your classroom.  There may be a STEM ambassador in your area available to help teachers run and judge challenges.  Please send an email with your details and requirements to stem-ambassadors@Glasgow.ac.uk if you would like the opportunity for an ambassador to help in your school. See the Science Connects webpage for more information on the STEM Ambassador programme.
• Senior secondary pupils make great judges for the cluster challenge.
• For those new to the competition, training material is available in the resources section of this website. Teachers can download and work through it at their own pace or organise a session for the teachers in their cluster to work through the material together.