Rotary Priory Technology Tournament 2024

Students from five schools in the area took part in the annual Rotary Priory Technology Tournament at King’s Lynn Academy on November 19th. The Academies taking part were The King’s Lynn Academy, King Edward VII, Springwood, Smithdon and Marshland.

The event was organised by King’s Lynn Priory Rotary and saw 96 students taking part in teams of 4 with the objective of creating a model Space Capsule Launcher using a limited range of construction materials. The task required each team to take decisions as a group on a range of issues, including how to build the launch rig, how to propel the capsule vertically up and how to return it to the launch pad area.

Derek Stringer of Priory Rotary, the event organiser, said that it was very encouraging to see these 24 groups of young people working closely together as a team tackling some very demanding technical issues in order to reach their best possible collective outcomes.

“We saw miniature space capsules leaping three metres in the air, often in a vertical trajectory but occasionally one would veer off in the direction of Venus and Mars!”.

The winning team in the Foundation Category was Springwood High School. The team members were: Ola Mereczynska, Samual McHale, Rose Stewart and Lilly-Grace Pightling. The Intermediate Category was also won by Springwood High School, the team members were: Nathan Pimlot, Daisy Stapleton, Kacper Debski and Annie Overton. The Advanced Category was won by The King Edward VII Academy, the team members were: Caiman Drake, Holly Faversham, Gabriela Jakoniuk and Erin Cheng.

The event sponsors, Bespak, were represented at the event by Darren Hodkinson Chief Operating Officer, Shaun Williams Product Engineering Manager and Adam Cork Apprentice Mechanical Engineer who were part of the judging team. Darren Hodkinson, presented the winning and runner up teams with their team and individual trophies. Mr Hodkinson said ”I want to congratulate Priory Rotary for putting on this excellent event. The kind of task that the students have had to work on under the pressure of time and defined resources in this tournament replicates the challenges which our staff at Bespak have to face on a day-to-day basis. It has been so rewarding to see these young people working so effectively in their small teams. Congratulations to all the participants; they have all achieved something very important today in their development towards their chosen careers, and hopefully some will choose engineering in some form or other.”