The 2024 Schools Geology Challenge!

On the 21^st of March 2024, we hosted this year’s Schools Geology Challenge final at Burlington House. It was an exciting and inspiring day with 10 teams competing to win the trophy and £500 towards geoscience education at their school!

What is the Challenge?

The Schools Geology Challenge is an annual competition for students aged 16 to 18 where they are given the chance to showcase their passion for geoscience, teamwork, and presentation skills. The competition is open to students studying geology, geography, or science subjects. Schools enter the challenge through the qualifier round where teams produce a piece of media for an online audience on any geoscience topic of their choice. The top 10 teams are then invited to the grand final at Burlington House to complete a problem-solving activity based on real world issues, presenting their findings to the competition judges.

Qualifiers

This year’s Qualifiers stage saw an incredible range of entries including: a website investigating the geology of architecture, a stop motion animation on Mars, and a newsroom style presentation on development of civilisations being affected by geology.

After careful deliberation from the judging panel the top 10 teams were decided on and invited to Burlington House for the final.

Final

The final involves a problem-solving exercise which the students complete in their teams. This year’s problem-solving had students considering environmental, social, and financial factors as they sought to find the best site for a wind farm in the fictional town of Quinnston.

Students were introduced to Quinnston, a town looking to become the UK’s first town completely powered by wind energy. To do this the town council were looking for a suitable wind farm site and this is where the teams come in. The students were the contractors and had to present their plan for the build.

Using geological cross sections and maps of the area, students needed to not only find a suitable site for six wind turbines but also develop a verbal pitch to present to the town council (our judges) in the hope they would be selected to win the contract. Although the site needed to be suitable in terms of wind prevalence there were also other factors to consider:

• The site needed to be able to support the large turbines and be a designated distance from residential housing
• Address residents’ concerns of the site disrupting the migration path of the King Burleys, a species of birds that brings in a lot of tourism to the town
• Building in the protected area of St. Catherine’s Park which is heavily surcharged
• Keeping within the £1 million budget and justifying what they choose to spend the money on

Once time was up the students presented their pitch for the contract to Quinnston town council – our fantastic judges. This year’s competition was judge by Roni Savage, Antony Benham and Edith Brazier who have expertise in geotechnical engineering, minerals and mining and environmental engineering. Teams only had 3 minutes to pitch their ideas, needing to be very concise!

Winners

After considering all the teams’ pitches the judges then chose the winning team and runners up.

This year’s winners were The Tiffin Girls School! Their pitch earned them the contract from Quinnston town council, and they won this year’s amethyst trophy alongside £500 towards geoscience education at their school.

This year’s runners up were The Sixth Form College Farnborough and Runshaw College both winning £200.

The day was a success, a huge thank you to all the Geological Society staff who helped facilitate the day as well as our fantastic judges who volunteered their time and expertise to inspire students on the day. Also, a huge well done and thank you to our amazing teams who all produced fantastic work on the day and to their teachers for their support!

The 2025 Schools Geology Challenge will open for entries in September 2024. Head to our website to find out more information, sign up for competition updates and see clips from previous entries.

If you would like to be a judge for the 2025 Schools Geology Challenge final or would like to contribute to the competition in some way, please contact education@geolsoc.org.uk.

Photos taken by Murray Pettit.

Please help us to pass on a passion for geoscience. We would welcome donations to support our education and outreach activities. To find out more, please contact us at development@geolsoc.org.uk or call +44 (0) 20 7432 0960.