On 9th June six of us from Port Ellen Primary School; Scott, Ewan, Jason, Emily, Ellen and Eilidh, went to Glasgow Science Centre for the Celebration of Science and Engineering. On the journey there we got to travel on the new MV Finlaggen ferry and had a tour round the bridge to see all the shiny gadgets and gizmos. The next day we got up early and set up our presentation at the Glasgow Science Centre along with 53 other primary and high schools from around Scotland. We went to see a science show, where they made things turn invisible, and got to play with the amazing science exhibits, finding out loads of information in a very fun way.
Next we had to present our science project to 4 judges from science industries around Scotland. Our teacher was told “Bye, Bye!” by the judges as she wasn’t allowed to see what we were doing. Our presentation was Mission SOS! Save our seas, and talked about biodiversity, the marine tank we set up in class, oil spills, beach cleans and tidal turbines. We had made a tidal turbine and wired our own electronic quiz on rock pool biodiversity. I think the judges really liked the puppet we made to help present, called Jim the Scientist. We also had videos of the lobster and crab we had in our tank.
Afterwards we had to compete in 5 STEM challenges put on by companies around Scotland. This included a Shell oil change task, a Lloyds Register ship’s ballast test, working with lasers and operating a mini ROV. The challenges were fun and we did quite well.
Finally we went to the IMAX for the presentation of awards to schools. Heather (the Weather) Reid was presenting the awards, along with Fergus Ewing, Minister for Energy. There were nine awards altogether, and we hadn’t entered most of them. Then she announced “And the award for the best presentation of a showcase, sponsored by BT, goes to Port Ellen Primary School.” We were extremely amazed, and our faces showed it! We had to go down and get a cheque for £250 and had our picture taken. At last we got home, having enjoyed the best trip ever!