The Rotary Technology Tournament, now in it’s 11th year and organised by the Rotary Clubs of Norwich, Norwich St Edmund and Reepham & District, was held on Friday 3rd March at the Hewett Academy in Norwich, courtesy of The Principal, Mr Tom Leverage. This year, over 100 young people from 10 schools in and around Norwich entered 27 teams in the competition.

Pupils worked in teams of four to solve a simulated real life practical problem. This year the task, sight unseen by the young people until the day, was to produce a ‘pipeline’ vehicle. This simple self-propelled unit was required to move along a piece of open pipe and move some materials within it. The vehicle then needed to be able to reverse to it’s starting point. In addition, the ‘advanced’ teams’ vehicle had to actually retrieve the material in the pipe and bring it back to the start point.
The teams had 30 minutes to organise their roles and produce design ideas, after which they had 4 hours to work with limited tools and materials to produce their practical solutions to the problem.

A feature of these tournaments is that young people respond so well when given the opportunity to innovate and think in a practical context. The 27 teams all managed to produce different solutions to the problem and there were several very clever design ideas employed to complete the task. The overall results were judged not only on the success of the final models but also the design portfolios. Two staff team’s models were also entered, with it has to be said, limited success!

The Rotary Clubs of Norwich, Norwich St Edmunds and Reepham & District were pleased to welcome The Lord Mayor of Norwich, Marion Maxwell, The Sheriff of Norwich, Mr Richard Marks and his consort, Maeve Marks to the event.

All participating young people received a certificate of attendance, plus there were trophies for the winners in each category.