First Place at the Rotary Technology Tournament – Beacon School
11 May 2023
The Beacon Grabs First Place at the Rotary Technology Tournament 2023
Pupils from The Beacon Boys’ Prep School in Amersham emerged victorious in the foundation category at the Rotary Technology Tournament 2023. The tournament, which took place at Chiltern Hills Academy, saw 96 pupils from 8 local schools competing in teams of four. The foundation level was open to pupils up to Key Stage 3. All teams had to design, develop, and build a solution to an interactive technology-based task using materials supplied.
Two teams comprising of boys from the internal Masters of Innovation competition at The Beacon were given the opportunity to compete in the Rotary Technology Tournament. The internal competition was a battle between the school Houses, so the two leading Houses, Cromer and Eddystone, came out tops to attend the event.
At the Rotary Technology Tournament, all teams were tasked with creating a “grabber” mechanism that could be triggered from no more than a 1.5-meter distance to grasp and retrieve a “radioactive comet” (a tennis ball) from an awkward container (a Perspex box). Teams of 4 were assessed on team organisation, communication, analysis of problem, as well as skill of construction, and the success of the device.
The Beacon ‘Eddystone’ team were the selected as winners of the category. In fact, their design was so impressive that a team of A-level students from The Chiltern Hills Academy approached them for advice on the mechanics behind it.
The Mayor of Amersham and the Mayor of Chesham were in attendance, along with a panel of retired expert engineers and designers who judged the competition. Mr Van Rooyen, Head of Design and Technology at The Beacon, expressed his pride in both teams.
The winning team, ‘Eddystone’, comprised of Jo M (Year 8), Cassius J (Year 7), Nikolay A (Year 6), and Thomas B (Year 5) and the ‘Cromer team’, Theo T (Year 8), Adrian T (Year 7), Rory S (Year 6), and Sebby T (Year 5) who also completed the task successfully.
The event is held annually, usually in February.