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Cracking idea by Cambridgeshire school makes it best for innovation |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Friday, 12 October 2007 |
 A machine which automatically walks and feeds your dog designed by pupils
at a Brampton school has come out on top in prestigious competition, Cracking Ideas, to find
the inventors of the future.
The Cracking Ideas project was developed by the UK Intellectual Property
Office which encourages innovation and processes patent and trade mark
applications. The success of the competition means it will be run again
this year.
According to the PR Newswire, The 'Dog It All' designed by Year Five pupils at Brampton Village Primary
School has been chosen as the Midlands and East winner of the 2007 Cracking
Ideas project. They will now battle it out with five other schools from
around the country for the national title.
Cracking Ideas is fronted by Oscar(r) winning inventors Wallace & Gromit,
and is the biggest government backed project of its type. The search is now
on for the 2008 innovators.
During the summer term children and teachers around the UK were logging onto
www.crackingideas.com and following lessons plans linked with the national
curriculum and designed to encourage innovation.
The classroom activities included a competition where the nine and ten-year-old
pupils used everyday objects to create an invention - a solution to an
everyday problem they had encountered.
The pupils from Brampton Village Primary came up with a model to make walking
and feeding your dog a lot easier and one that is sure to appeal to Gromit. The
invention takes the idea of an ordinary running machine a step further. There
is a bar at the end with a bone to encourage the dog to keep going. Two large
tanks dispense food and water when the Dog It All has stopped. Cling film,
bottle tops and crisp containers have all been used for this machine.
Amongst Brampton Village Primary School's prizes is a lap top computer. If
they are successful in the national competition they will be presented with
an original trophy by Aardman Animations, creator of Wallace & Gromit.
Jacqui Watkins, head teacher of Brampton Village Primary School, said the
Year Five pupils had worked hard to come up with the winning entry. She said,
This was a fantastic initiative and a great way to bring learning to life
and show children how important innovation is. We are really pleased to have
won the regional competition and hope we have come up with the cracking idea
that will win the national title. Intellectual Property and Quality Minister Lord Triesman, said the standard
of entries was high. The Lord also said,
Cracking Ideas has successfully brought innovation into the classroom and
has been a tremendous success. Brampton Village Primary has shown how primary school children can be great
innovators and we are looking forward to seeing more of this in the future.
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