Two Year 8 pupils from Felsted Prep have earned second place at the UK National Science and Engineering Competition.
Isabelle Soper and Ruby Rose competed at The Big Bang Fair UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair 2018 at the NEC in Birmingham. The event encourages pupils to submit a research-based project, with the best competing at regional and then national level.
Isabelle and Ruby’s project won the regional heat, which explored children’s ability to learn perfect pitch. They found that it is possible to learn to significantly improve the pitch of your voice, but this improvement is lost after a month without practice. After three days of presenting their work to the judges at the national finals, they attended an awards ceremony and were announced as runners-up in the Junior Category.
They commented: “This has been a fascinating topic to research, as we are both so interested in science and music. As well as developing our academic understanding of the topic, we have improved our presentation skills, as well as having the opportunity to act as ambassadors for our project; networking and interacting with adult specialists in the field and with our peers. The project has increased our confidence and made us realise that, with hard work, aspiration and determination, there are many opportunities out there in the world of science to be explored.”