The 2015 Shell STEM Youth Innovation Challenge

Highlights on Final Judging Day of the 2015 Shell STEM Youth Innovation Challenge.

The Shell STEM Youth Innovation Challenge (Shell STEM Challenge) is sponsored by Shell Companies in Singapore. It evolved from the Shell Singapore Youth Science Festival, the Shell Science Camp first held in 2013. The 2015 Shell STEM Challenge was up-scaled to include secondary three participants from all streams instead of only the Normal (Technical) stream. Its competition period was also extended from a four-day camp to a few months’ challenge, open to all schools offering STEM Applied Learning Programme (ALP).

The overarching 2015 competition theme is sustainability. As the world’s population increases and resources as limited, sustainable living is essential to surviving on earth. Therefore, students worked in groups of six to build practical solutions revolving sustainability of food, water, energy and eco-friendly materials.

For the first time, volunteers from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Science Centre Singapore were invited to mentor the students. Engineers working in the real-world STEM industries and Educators with Science background helped shape students’ project ideas and provided invaluable feedback on their hands-on projects.

Engineer from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) mentoring students from Geylang Methodist School (Secondary).

To further equip students with relevant skills, STEM Inc ran a two-day Skills Workshops at four central schools. The schools are namely Greendale Secondary School, Guangyang Secondary School, Hillgrove Secondary School and Marsiling Secondary School. Student participants attended the Safety Briefing conducted by Shell Companies in Singapore. In addition, they attended workshops on (1) mechanical fabrication, (2) woodwork, (3) electronic prototyping and (4) Arduino control system conducted by STEM Inc.

The Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) briefing conducted by personnel from Shell Companies in Singapore during the two-day Skills Workshops.

The Preliminary Judging Event was held at the four central schools on 3 June and its Final Judging Event held on 13 July 2015 at The Grassroots’ Club. As part of the Singapore Science Festival, finalists’ projects were available for public viewing 2pm to 5pm on the Final Judging Day. A total of 254 students from 31 STEM ALP schools forming 49 teams participated in the 2015 Shell STEM Challenge.

Do like us on our Shell STEM Challenge Facebook Page.