HICKLEY ACADEMY JOHN CLEVELAND SIXTH FORM CENTRE TAKES GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TOP PRIZE AT THE BIG BANG COMPETITION

NEWS RELEASE - Friday 16th MARCH 2018 

Bethan Padbury from Hickley Academy John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre was honoured with the Guinness World Records: Science & Stuff Inspire Award at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition.

Bethan wowed the judges with her project entitled Generating Understanding. Bethan created a simple generator to produce electricity and explored the potential of renewable energy sources. She used a bicycle to find out if a homemade generator can be used to light an LED sign. 

Guinness World Records aims to inspire people to discover their true potential. This prize has been awarded to a project or product that inspires — that has been created with ingenuity, imagination and creativity, and mirrors our values of integrity, respect, inclusiveness and passion. 

Bethan from Hickley Academy John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre was chosen from over 500 finalists from across the country in The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Competition after pitching her project to judges.

In addition, Josh Mitchell, aged 18 from Holmes Chapel took the UK Young Engineers of the Year prize and Emily Xu, aged 18 from Dulwich, London was crowned GSK UK Young Scientist of the Year. 

The Big Bang Competition is an annual contest designed to recognise and reward young people's achievements in all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), as well as helping them build skills and confidence in project-based work. 

Congratulating Bethan, Mark Titterington, Chief Executive of EngineeringUK which organises The Big Bang Competition said: “Looking at this innovative project it’s easy to see why it stood out to the judges, however we’ve been blown away by the quality of entries from all the finalists – not only for their brilliant work but for showcasing it to crowds of people at The Big Bang Fair. 

“It certainly bodes well for the future that the scientists, engineers and inventors of tomorrow are already producing such astute and creative project work.” 

Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief for Guinness World Records said: “We were delighted to take part in The Big Bang Competition. All of the projects were fantastic which made judging really difficult. The work by this year’s winners of the Science & Stuff Inspire Award was particularly impressive. These talented young people will make incredible future scientists and we hope to see them breaking records in the future” 

For more information and to enter next year’s Competition visit www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/competition 

Notes to editors 

For more information or interviews with finalists, please contact: 

Laura Greene / 07719 531357 / laura@cowpr.com

About The Big Bang Competition and The Big Bang Fair 

The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people in the UK. Taking place from 14-17 March 2018 at The NEC in Birmingham, it celebrates and raises the profile of young people’s achievement in science and engineering, and encourage more young people to take part in science, technology, engineering and maths initiatives with support from their parents and teachers. www.thebigbangfair.co.uk 

School groups are invited to visit the first three days of The Big Bang Fair, which will also be open to the public on the Saturday. Young people will leave enlightened about how science and engineering feature in everything they wear, eat and do. A number of apprentice, graduate and experienced engineers and scientists will be on hand to quiz, providing young people with the opportunity to discover how science and maths can lead to a great career. The Big Bang Fair also hosts the finals of the prestigious Big Bang Competition. 

For more information please visit www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/competition 

About Guinness World Records 

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (GWR) is the global authority on record-breaking achievement. First published in 1955, the iconic annual Guinness World Records books have sold over 141 million copies in over 20 languages and in more than 100 countries. Additionally, the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition, first published in 2007, has sold more than 4 million copies to date.

Guinness World Records’ worldwide television programmes reach over 750 million viewers annually and more than 2.4 million people subscribe to the GWR YouTube channel, which enjoys more than 200 million views per year. The GWR website receives over 20 million visitors annually, and we have over 13.8 million fans on Facebook. 

The Guinness World Records commercial sales division provides bespoke consultancy services for some of the world’s top brands and agencies to help place record breaking at the heart of their marketing campaigns, employee-engagement programmes, and live and experiential events.