Two Highland schools triumph at Junior Saltire Award

Pupils from Aldourie Primary in the Highlands are on the crest of a wave after winning Scotland’s Junior Saltire Award for designing a wave powered generator.

Aldourie received the top prize in the P5 – P7 category of the competition, which is managed by Skills Development Scotland (SDS), in partnership with Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) and backed by the Scottish Government.

The winning team built their model and tested it out at Strathclyde University’s test tank on Thursday 13 June. They received a Junior Saltire medal and £750 for their school during Big Bang Scotland at the Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre on Friday 14 June.

Ullapool High School meanwhile were highly commended in the S4 – S6 category, also being given the opportunity to test their generator design at Strathclyde University and collecting £250 for their school at Big Bang Scotland.   

Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism Fergus Ewing said: “I am consistently impressed by the creative and innovative ideas that come from our young people.  Taking part in these awards helps them develop the entrepreneurial skills and confidence they need to take these ideas and to develop them in the future.  The awards will enhance the young people’s work readiness which will help build the smarter, wealthier and fairer Scotland that we all want to see in future.”

Junior Saltire Award finalists were asked to create, design, build and test a wave powered generator suitable for Scottish waters.

Presenting the award, Rob Orr, Energy Sector Manager of SDS congratulated the winning team and said: “This group of pupils should be very proud of their achievements in creating a design to harness renewable energy. They showed tremendous insight, inventiveness and imagination. They could see the huge potential that Scotland has in this area and in a practical way, at a very detailed level, created a workable design.”

Jane Martin, Programme Director - Young Engineers and Science Clubs Scotland
of SCDI, said: “I would like to congratulate the teams on their outstanding achievements in this challenge.  SCDI has been pleased to work in partnership with the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland to promote the Junior Saltire Prize Awards 2013 through our Young Engineers and Science Clubs programme.

“We have been hugely impressed with the creativity and imagination shown by all the young people taking on this project and had great difficulty in selecting a winner from these potential engineers of the future”