Two Chantry Middle School students are celebrating after winning aprestigious prize for work they exhibited at the Big Bang North East Science Fair.
Ben Waugh and Harrison Smart, who are both in Year 8, fought off competition from students across the North East to win the University of Bradford Robotic Telescope Prize for Practical Science.
The pair had to present their work, titled “Investigating the Ingredients in Homemade Toothpaste”, to an audience of professional scientists and engineers who were impressed by the quality of their investigation and confident delivery. In their investigation Ben and Harrison used readily available ingredients to prepare homemade toothpaste that worked just as effectively as leading brands, but at a fraction of the cost.
The prize normally includes a sponsored trip to China, but unfortunately the Chinese sponsor withdrew their support shortly before the two 12-year-olds were due to travel. By way of consolation the UK sponsor, the University of Bradford, invited the pair on an all expenses paid residential trip to the university to work in new state of the art laboratories.
Ben and Harrison’s toothpaste investigation work has also been shortlisted for the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition, which takes place in Birmingham in March.
Steven Johnson, Head of School at Chantry, said: “We are very grateful to the University of Bradford for hosting Ben and Harrison. We are very proud that their outstanding work has been recognised and wish them the best of luck for Birmingham.”
See the article and a short film about their work on the Morpeth Herald website.
