Essex Schools Compete in Rocket Competition

On Thursday the 19th of April teams gathered at the amazing Stow Maries Aerodrome for this year’s ADS/UKAYROC Build a Rocket Regional Competition. The Essex Employment and Skills Board’s Education and Industry STEM Programme team once again sponsored this fantastic event that saw teams representing schools across the county (and beyond!) come together to compete on the day.

Competitors were blessed with the hottest day of the year so far, and began arriving first thing in the morning ready for their first launch. After check-in, teaching staff were obliged to leave their students in the hangar to press ahead with their final checks without their support. As more and more schools arrived the hangar became a hive of excited activity, with teams working at their assigned tables to make sure their rocket was ready for take-off. Pre-flight checks were administered by ADS staff and volunteers, before teams headed out to the airfield to take their turn with the launch button and watch their rocket take flight!

Competitors were awarded points according to how close to the optimum height their rocket reached before separating and releasing the payload (eggs), how close to the optimum time the payload took to descend to earth, and whether eggs arrived there safely. The team with the lowest points total across their various flights would be crowned the winners on the day, with the first three teams also getting the chance to compete at the national competition later this year.

ADS will announce the regional competition winners in a couple of weeks time, once each of their other regional heats have taken place and we’ll publish the results here on the ESB website once we hear. Fingers crossed that our winner comes from one of our brilliant Essex schools!

The day was once again a huge success and we would like to say a massive thank you to ADS and UKAYROC for running the day so brilliantly once again. We’d also like to thank the team at Stow Maries Aerodrome for allowing use of their amazing facility, and for being such an important part of the day, and the volunteers that made the day run so efficiently – in particular the fantastic John Jacomb without whom the day, quite simply, wouldn’t be able to go ahead! And of course each and every one of the students and teaching staff that came along for the day. We hope you all had a great experience, even if your rocket didn’t necessarily do what you’d hoped it would do!

The Essex schools that took part on the day, were as follows:

The Gilberd School	Stanway School	Sweyne Park
Woodlands	Ramsay Academy	Stewards Academy
St. Marks	Thurstable School	Castle View
Gt. Baddow High	Bromfords