The Club raised funds to enable schools to take part in the Bloodhound project.  The winning school's bid is below, together with some photographs of their event and a video.  We raised sufficient funds to enable the school to run the event twice.

Project Bloodhound.

Aims of project

The project has the following aims for pupils:

To have fun exploring the world of science and technology; learn, create, share, watch, experiment and discuss.
To improve their understanding of key science and technology concepts and knowledge in KS2 through investigation with a purposeful project.
To develop skills and confidence in using their existing and acquired knowledge to meet the requirements of the project and produce an effective outcome.

The project has the following aims for school staff:

To develop new skills in science and technology and design.
To learn how to use different equipment and support the learning of the children.
To develop confidence in teaching key science and technology and design concepts and knowledge

 Participants

90 KS2 pupils from age 9 – 11 (Years 4, 5 and 6)
8 staff members (teachers, teaching assistants, nursery nurses etc)

 Project-

Staff will work with our science consultant to learn about the bloodhound project and the participation requirements.
Staff and Science consultant will work with Bloodhound representatives to support the development of knowledge and skills within Years 4, 5 and 6 in order for classes to work in teams to construct a model rocket-powered car and to race it against other schools’ cars.
Teams will present their models and templates for selection and participate in an internal competition day. All teams will have their progress recorded to share on our website.
The selected teams will develop their final models further ready for the competition race with other schools.

Benefits

Increased confidence in staff and pupils in explaining key science and technology and design concepts and knowledge
Pupils with science and technology and design skills and an enthusiasm for applying them.
Staff with science and technology and design skills and an eagerness to develop further for themselves and their pupils.
Links for development with outside agencies and a web site to further develop existing science and technology and design skills across the whole school.

Lasting impact

The skills used to construct the car and race it will have a lasting impact on all students participating within the project that will go beyond their year groups and science and technology and design. The need for a team approach and the ability to value and share in each others work is a concept completely in line with our School development Plan and will support the independence we seek to promote in all of our children.
The project for our school is a way of taking the skills and understandings that children have already developed with staff and our science consultant and putting them into a meaningful and purposeful project that has an exciting and creative outcome which will excite and engage all children. We know that this level of engagement will mean that the project becomes a whole school project and that the lasting impact will be a school that is gripped by the opportunities in science and engineering in the wider world. St. Edmunds is trying to build up an expertise in science and engineering because of its heritage in the Millwall area, especially its position so close to the site of the building and launching of Brunel's Great Eastern. We are part of the history around us and we want to part of making the history for our futures!