STEM Solutions Competition 2025
A Caterham School delegation was delighted to be able to compete in the fourth annual STEM Solutions competition. Wayne, Ella, Joshua and Lisa (all Lower Sixth) started preparing for their presentation on The Future of Medicine in April, with a series of rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the competition. They explored the potential uses and implications of bioartificial organs, organoids, molecular prosthetics, and the increasingly frequent use of AI in the sector. On the day of the competition, by virtue of being first alphabetically among the competing schools, our team was the first to present their work. They knew that they would be penalised if their presentation exceeded their five-minute time limit, and there was audible amazement in the Woldingham auditorium when our hosts revealed that their presentation had been exactly five minutes long!
The team had also enjoyed practising their general knowledge of science in a series of quizzes before the competition. On the day, they were challenged to identify all the ringed planets in our Solar System, to count the bones in a human foot, to solve a deceptively straightforward Pythagorean geometry question, and to build a Molymod model of the organic product of a multistep chemical reaction sequence, among other details. With five teams of four pupils gathered around the stage at their tables, we only needed to add some surname labels, and it would have seemed even more like the University Challenge studio – an appropriate description for an event that took place in the week that the closely-fought 2025 UC grand final was broadcast.
The last round of the STEM Solutions competition was the legendary engineering challenge. In previous years, this challenge has seen competitors building the tallest straw-and-tape tower, the sturdiest bridge between two tables, and the longest free-standing, above-ground marble run. This year, the challenge was to build the most buoyant straw-and-tape boat, with the winning boat being the one that could support the most laboratory weights without sinking or capsizing. There were plenty of innovative designs here, including one that seemed like it was relying more on its ability to anchor itself to the side of a bowl of water than on its ability to stay afloat!
We listened to a keynote address by Dr Brijesh Patel, a London-based senior consultant in Critical Care, about the future directions of the medical sector, before the competition results were confirmed and revealed with Caterham taking fourth place in a very strong field of five teams. Our competitors enjoyed sharing their expertise with the other delegations and hearing from them in turn, and there is every possibility that some of them will end up working together in the future. Many thanks to them and the Woldingham School STEM Society for facilitating such a great event, and to Dr Langdon for accompanying us.
Mr R. Evans
