Prestigious competition finals spot for Oriel High School in Crawley

The three strong team of year seven pupils from the school will now take their place in next year’s final of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition.

The team, made up of Sean Murray, Toby Lawrence and Owen Webster, have been announced as one of the winners of the regional heats at The Big Bang South East, with the project from the group entitled ‘Proximity using pulse’.

As part of the project, they investigated to see if you can use your pulse to tell how far away an object/person is.

They did this by blindfolding people and making slight sounds and seeing if they picked it up by measuring their pulse.

Their testing found positive results but the conditions need to be suited.

Mark Titterington, Chief Executive, EngineeringUK said: “The team from Oriel High School really impressed the judges with their project and we’re excited to see how they do at the UK finals. It is a huge achievement to progress to this stage of The Competition, Sean, Toby and Owen should be incredibly proud to take up their place and compete at The Big Bang Fair in March.

“Going into its eleventh year in 2019, The Big Bang Fair continues to be a great source of STEM inspiration for young people, representing an amazing opportunity for young visitors, their teachers and parents to get hands-on with a wide range of activities, workshops and shows, and engage in meaningful career conversations with professionals, all designed to bring classroom learning to life and inspire the next generation.”

The students will be invited to attend the competition finals, which are taking place at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham’s NEC in March 2019.

Here, they will vie for top prizes including the coveted title of UK Young Engineer and GSK UK Young Scientist of the Year.