Alton Towers National Science Week Competition

[Brookes]

Had a search for this but couldn't find anything...

Quoted text below from: http://altontowers.com/national-science-week

Design a world beating rollercoaster and you could win the opportunity to be amongst the first to ride the Resort's newest ride when it opens in March 2013!

Put your science knowledge into practice by designing a ride, taking into account forces, gravity and energy. All designs will be judged by a panel of rollercoaster experts at the Alton Towers Resort. The winning design will receive an exclusive ride for their class on the Resort's newest rollercoaster when it opens in March during National Science and Engineering Week.

Seems pretty interesting, shame it's for 16s and under...

Terms and Conditions

All entries must be received by 5:00pm on Friday 14th December 2012. All entrants must be aged 16 or under. The prize is an exclusive ride on SW7 for 35 winners, including teachers, during National Science Week in March 2013. All winners must be at least 1.4m tall or more to be able to ride SW7. The winner of the competition will be notified Friday 11th January. Travel expenses are not included within the competition prize.

It looks like they've got quite a lot going on for National Science Week which is pretty good in my view. I don't recall them doing anything like this before. Seems like they're encouraging school trips at that time as well, but from a more educational point of view. If I was still at school I'd love to be part of something like this, so anyone who's young enough to enter I say go for it!

 

[Rachel]

Some of the shows and workshops look as though they would be really interesting.

Great idea to get school kids more interested in Science, I definitely would have paid more attention if we'd had school trips like this.

 

[nadroJ]

Kind of fits with the theme of 'experimentation' style stuff too. Awesome.

 

[Nic]

I wonder who their "panel of rollercoaster experts" will be? Me bet is some marketing bod from Alton, the park's education consultant/manager/liaison officer/whatever, and that annoying "ride psychology" berk with the glasses and sideburns that they always trawl out.

I definitely would have paid more attention if we'd had school trips like this.

I wouldn't count on it. We went on a school "Science" trip to Chessington in Year 10 (when it was still the bigger of the two parks) Pretty sure no learning occurred that day.

 

[Rachel]

Ha perhaps not, certainly would have beaten the Science museum though!

 

[Ethan]

Yay I'm just about young enough, oh the joy of being young and immature! Effort to do it though, how do you even enter a design? Drawing?

 

[Nic]

To enter, submit your entries to education@alton-towers.com or visit altontowers.com/national-science-week before Friday 14th December. Entries can be in diagram or word format but please include:

• A description of the ride and some of the key features e.g. what makes it different, how tall is it, how fast will it travel, does it go upside down?

• How you have incorporated Science into the design – think about speed, forces, energy – how will the rollercoaster create the energy to move?

• Some helpful tips – rollercoasters constantly convert gravitational potential energy into kinetic, sound and thermal energy. Friction is used on most rollercoaster brake systems.

Full press release - http://press.altontowers.com/news-alton ... tion-11710

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Is 16 and under the target demographic of SW7 then?

Probably not. Probably just another example of how disconnected marketing are.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

 

[nadroJ]

It is funny, 16 and under can literally mean anything under 16, and I'd say, what, more than half of those will presumably be too short/scared to ride?

I like the idea, but if this is going to be the big thrill coaster will a kind of hardcore, mental asylum, correctional facility style theme then for under 16s it ain't.

 

[caffeine_demon]

anyone know how I can get away with faking being 16?

 

[Thekingin64]

I'm guessing I can't use NoLimits for this?

 

[Brookes]

^I reckon you could, they're probably just not expecting that much effort haha.

 

[Ethan]

I wouldn't put much effort into it. They're probably just as likely to choose a scribble drawn by a 10 year old, I don't think it's meant seriously tbh.