On Monday 6th July JCoSS took part for the first time in the Barnet STEM Challenge day hosted by Middlesex university.  A group of 12 students from Year 8 headed off to Hendon early in the morning, where they joined with other secondary schools from around Barnet.  The students were put into teams of four with those from other schools and competed against each other in a variety of competitions.

The tasks they were set were to build the fastest race-car, identify some “criminals” using police e-fit software, build the strongest suspension bridge possible out of paper and string, and programme a Lego robot to navigate its way around a maze.  Whilst none of our students ended up on any of the four overall winning teams, we did have lots of 2nd and 3rd place finishers; not bad for a first attempt.

It was a great day, and each student learnt a lot about teamwork and engineering while having a fun and inspirational time.  We look forward to taking a new group of challengers next year.