BRIGHT sparks at a Barrhead school secured a prestigious award thanks to a cunning invention...a blazer which can recharge a mobile phone.

The whizz-kids from Barrhead High took part in the Engineering Development Trust’s Go4SET scheme, which gives youngsters the chance to develop their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills.

The 10-week programme saw the clever clogs from S2 design, research and create the blazer before going up against 15 other classes at Paisley’s West College Scotland.

And the atmosphere was electric as the Barrhead pupils were voted by their peers as winners of the Pupils’ Choice Award for their invention.

Stuart Boag, principal teacher of STEM at Barrhead High, is full of praise for the pupils.
He told the Barrhead News: “I was just amazed at how hard the kids all worked.

“We want to encourage pupils to get involved in STEM and there’s a big push from the Scottish Government right now to do that.

“I think the real life aspect of it all gave the pupils an idea of how useful these skills can be in real life.

“When you are a teacher, it can be difficult to get these ideas across but this was excellent and really grabbed their imagination.

“It was great to see how creative they were.”

The pupils worked on the project during their own free time and, after considering a number of ideas, including revolutionary waterproofs, eventually came up with the winning project all on their own.

The school blazer is made of a fabric that creates electricity, which is then stored in a transformer and used to charge their mobile devices.

Pupils joined forces with technology giants Micron during the 10-week programme and even visited the firm’s East Kilbride base to enjoy a taster of how their STEM skills could translate to real life scenarios.

Mr Boag added: “It was really great to see how Micron worked and for the kids to experience it all.

“During the project, they all worked really hard together and I could leave them to it.

“I was just amazed at what they came up with.”

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