Year 7 Noah Wins The STEAM Scientist Competition

Princethorpe College’s STEAM Scientist competition attracted plenty of entries and Dan Lee, Head of Physics and STEAM Co-ordinator, and the Sixth Form STEAM Ambassadors, Joseph Newborough and Emma Sarkies, were delighted with the response.

Pupils were asked to choose six famous scientists representing a range of different science backgrounds, whose scientific achievements pupils felt to be exceptional, and to write a brief paragraph about each of the scientists, explaining why they had selected them to be featured on the walls of the College’s Science Centre.

The new Science Centre, which is currently being constructed, has space for graphics on a number of the wall panels and the competition offered pupils the opportunity to get involved with the design of the finished building by choosing their favourite scientists to celebrate on the walls.

Year 7 pupil, Noah Walker, was chosen as the winner and visited the construction site today, Tuesday 10 January, to be presented with his prize. During the visit, Foundation Assistant Head, Alex Darkes and Trendgrey Construction Managing Director, Nick Henderson gave Noah, Joseph, Emma and Mr Lee a short tour of the new building that included the likely locations of the scientist wall graphics.

Noah had suggested an amazing six scientists, who in his opinion, changed the world. They included renowned scientists such as Alan Turing and Steven Hawking but also those perhaps less well known such as Katherine Johnson, a pioneer space scientist, and Nikola Tesla, whose surname we are all familiar with, who was a physicist who amongst other things invented AC current. His six scientists also included Allen Bard, who is considered to be the creator of electrochemistry, and then a very important biochemist, Katalin Kariko, whose research into ribonucleic acid laid the foundations for the vaccines that shielded the world from the coronavirus pandemic. The competition judges were all agreed that Noah’s six scientists were excellent choices that would make for a superb display.

Eight highly commended entries, that were all awarded Da Vinci merits, included: Year 7s, Charles Packe and Jake Mainwaring; Year 10, Abigail Mandava; Year 11s, Bea Boakes, David Ikuomola, Seb Hume-Chignell and Lampros Papadogiannakis; and Lower Sixth Former, Tom Lomas.

Well done to all who took part in the competition, it was fascinating reading about your scientists and many congratulations to Noah, whose six scientists will make a superb display on the walls of the new Science Centre.