Rotary Technology Tournament for Home Educators (11–16 years)

Home Educators are always welcome at National Coal Mining Museum. Gain a deeper understanding of the museum with our specially tailored workshops.

The workshops are aimed at young people aged 12-16, if the young person you are looking to book for is younger than this – please see our Home Educators workshops for 7- 12 year olds. 

Put your engineering, creativity and teamwork to the test!

Are you ready to take on an exciting STEM challenge?

The Rotary Technology Tournament is a fun, hands-on engineering competition designed especially for home-educated young people aged 11–16 working in teams. Working in teams of 3 – 4 , participants will be presented with a previously unseen Design & Technology challenge and must work together to design, develop and build a solution using only the materials provided.

This engaging event encourages creative thinking, problem-solving and teamwork while giving young people the opportunity to experience engineering in a supportive and enjoyable environment.

Throughout the day, Design Mentors will be available to offer guidance and encouragement, helping teams develop their ideas while ensuring all solutions remain their own.

What is the challenge?

Teams will be given a surprise engineering brief on the day. They will need to:

• Analyse the design challenge and its success criteria.
• Brainstorm and develop ideas as a team.
• Present their concepts to experienced design mentors, through sketches or discussion.
• Test materials and refine their ideas.
• Build, test and improve their final design.
• Present their completed solution for judging at the end.

Aims of the Rotary Technology Tournament

The tournament is designed to:

• Give young people an exciting unseen Design & Technology challenge to complete within a fixed time using supplied materials.
• Develop interest in engineering, design, construction and technology careers
• Build confidence in creative problem-solving.
• Encourage teamwork, communication and collaboration.

Event Schedule

9.45am – 10am
Arrival and team registration.

10am – 10.15am
Welcome, introduction and presentation of the design challenge.

10.15am – 12pm
Planning and design session. Teams will explore the challenge, develop ideas, discuss their concepts with their Design Mentors, submit sketches or explain their thinking, and begin testing available materials.

12pm – 1pm
Lunch break. Participants are welcome to eat in the conference room. The café, located next to the conference room, will be open throughout the day serving food and drinks.

1pm – 2.30pm
Build session. Teams will construct, test and refine their designs using the supplied materials and equipment, with support available from their Design Mentors.

2.30pm – 3pm

Show and tell – each design will be assessed against a range of criteria and awarded points.

3pm – 3.30pm

Certificates and awards given.

Awards

Every participant will receive:

• A CREST Discovery Award Certificate.

The members of the winning team will also receive Rotary Technology Tournament medals.

Parent Information

Parents and carers are welcome to remain in the conference area throughout the event, where comfortable seating is provided.

For safeguarding purposes, all participants under the age of 14 must be accompanied by a parent, carer or legal guardian, who must remain in the conference suite or conference lobby for the duration of the event.

To ensure the competition is fair for all teams, parents and carers are not permitted to assist participants with the design challenge at any stage.

We cannot issue a refund on these workshops due to non attendance or change the workshop to another day. Thank you for your understanding.