posted by Carol Lyon, Schools & Learning Support Officer (STEM)
Congratulations to all pupils at Rosemount Primary School and Inverkeilor Primary School who participated in this year’s Scottish Engineering Special Leaders Award (SESLA). This annual STEM competition is open to primary and secondary schools across Scotland and asks one, straightforward question: If you were an engineer in Scotland – what would you do? To answer this question, pupils have to interview an engineer, invent a solution to a perceived problem and write a letter to persuade engineers why their invention should be built.
Between them, the pupils chalked up thirty-six merits and twenty-two distinctions. Archie Cooper, a Primary Six pupil at Inverkeilor, was chosen as overall winner for his year group. His invention, the ‘Safety Sole’, fits inside an ordinary shoe and is designed to act as an early warning/notification system for people with high or low blood pressure, and/or those at risk of having a heart attack. The sole contains seven sensors: 3 heart monitors, 3 blood pressure monitors and a G.P.S. tracking system which automatically notifies the emergency services.
As overall Primary Six winner for Scotland, Archie will attend a celebratory event at the University of Strathclyde on 9th June 2016. There, he will find out if engineering students have chosen his invention, over all of the other winning inventions, to build a prototype of. We wish Archie and the Safety Sole the very best of luck!
*If you have your own STEM success story please share it with us on the Angus Children and Learning Blog.
