RAF HONINGTON HOSTS REGIONAL STEM EVENT

Once again RAF Honington hosted school children from across the region in April to take part in the annual Robotics Challenge competition.

Station STEM Ambassadors from Cyberspace Communications, Engineers and Armourers hosted and assisted with the event. This national event is attended by high school children in Y7-9 who are interested in engineering and looking to choose STEM subjects.

This year saw 4 schools attend the regional final at RAF Honington from across the East of England:

• Alderman Peel High School of Wells-next-the-Sea

• Deepings School of Peterborough

• City of Norwich School (Ormiston Academy)

• Barnardiston Hall Prep School of Haverhill

The day included a speed challenge which required the students to program their robots to go as fast as possible along a 5-metre mat, stopping before they hit the Lego wall and returning to them in the quickest time possible. Another challenge saw them program their robot to collect rubbish along the side of a road and drive it back into a recycling centre. Further to this, the robots had to deposit a ping pong ball up a ramp and into a ‘recycling bin’, thereby testing the robot’s ability to traverse different terrains up a steep carboard ramp.

The students also participated in a team building challenge to create a radar out of a STEM kit which had to be 1 metre tall, with the radar dishes being 0.6 metres apart and to be freestanding. This made the children work as a team and tested their resolve establishing young leaders with their ideas and take on constructive criticism, all whilst having a time crunch of 10 minutes. With little instruction the children were able to come up with creative designs with Deepings school from Peterborough completing the task perfectly and ultimately winning the challenge. This saw them victorious and established them a place in the national final to be held at the Big Bang (NEC) in June. The students were also able to attend the RAF Regiment Heritage Centre hosted by Sgt Nunn, giving them an insight into the history of the RAF Regiment. Members from the RAF Regiment Training Wing also provided their VR kits, allowing the students to take some time away from the Robotics and experience a little of what an RAF Regiment Gunner might do whilst in training.