Day 5 - Our highly anticipated visit to Shell's Make the Future Festival London!!

Brief Introduction of our Day

Today, we made our way all the way to Stratford for Shell's Make the Future Festival London! We had a chance to meet other Make the Future Festival teams from all over the United Kingdom and enjoyed the numerous activities planned out for us including a boat ride, AcelorMittal Orbit slide ride, and the Shell Eco Marathon Workshop! As all good things must come to an end, we then had to make our way back to Heathrow Airport to where it all began and put a nice close to this wonderful chapter! Read on to find out more!

Day 5

Today we went for the highlight of our trip - Shell's Make the Future Festival! Set in the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the festival showcased many innovative ideas for the future and was also host to The Bright Ideas Challenge Finals UK. To our lovely surprise, we got a chance to meet the other winning teams of the regional Bright Ideas Challenge UK and spend the day with them! 

"I'll never forget the emotions I had when our team won The Bright Ideas Challenge in Singapore so I was quite thrilled to meet the winners of the competition in London." - Benjamin

We are here! Make the Future Festival London!

First up was a boat ride down East London's historic waterways. Our boatman explained to us the history of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as we passed sights such at the London Stadium and AcelorMittal Orbit. Did you know that all the bridges built across the river were built using the rubble from the original buildings torn down in the construction of the Olympic Village for the 2012 Olympics? And now, the pockets in the rubble act as shelters for an assortment of insects and birds during the winter season! What a sustainable effort!

Getting ready to go on our boat ride down the historic waterway

On the boat ride!

After that we got a real treat! We got to ride on the AcelorMittal Orbit!!

What an amazing piece of architecture!

Check out these views from the top!

"When I first looked at it from a distance, I was extremely excited and couldn't wait to go on! We took a lift all the way up and were awed by views as breathtaking as that at the Shard. We could see the whole of London from up there. As I looked at the whole city, I realised that I may never come back again and promised to make full use of the remaining hours we had in London. When it was going to be my turn to slide, my heart was pounding quicker. I was very anxious but yet I managed to stay calm and seize the moment. It was the best 30 seconds of my life! It was full of unexpected turns and deep plunges and I really enjoyed it!" - Benjamin 

Next, we headed to the Make The Future Festival and I realised that it was a lot different from the one in Singapore. There were many interactive booths showing the public ways to conserve and generate electricity in a sustainable manner in order to reduce pollution and our carbon footprint.

Making our way into the future

One of the many interactive booths

"At the Festival I saw many great ideas! One idea that struck me was how Shell is working to make their service stations more energy-efficient by supplying lower fuels and building more sustainable stations. With features like LED lights, rainwater harvesting, solar panels, efficient heating and cooling, clever reflective glass and recycling bins, Shell's effort to change the world one station at a time inspired me." - Aminah  

"What I liked best about the Festival was getting to build the saltwater car! It intrigued me that it did not run on batteries or fuel. The whole working mechanism of the car was just two pieces of metal with a piece of paper in between! When salt water was dropped onto the setup, the piece of paper absorbed the water and acted as a connection between the two pieces of metal. I learnt that the salt water provided the electrolyte used in the chemical reaction inside the fuel cell. The chemical reaction creates electricity in a way similar to how a battery creates electricity, allowing the car to run. Initially we had a lot of difficulties building the car but we persevered and managed to race our cars on the mini track." - Siyu 

Racing our saltwater cars!

We then headed to the main stage to watch the announcement of The Bright Ideas Challenge Winners in the UK. The winning team's ideas was to generate electricity by placing a device in shoes to convert steps into electricity! That was our senior's idea! Hopefully someone can really make the idea a reality then we can truly power our world one step at a time!

After lunch, we attend the Shell Eco Marathon workshop. Earlier in the day we saw some teams assembling and testing their Eco Marathon cars. The determination and teamwork displayed by the teams was really inspiring and we hope to be able to do something larger scale like this when we head on to Polytechnic and University in the future! 

Stringent tests and checks on the cars being carried out

At the Workshop we learnt about the purpose of the Shell Eco Marathon and also learnt about what makes a winning car. We first learnt about the motor system in a basic car. Then we learnt more about the suit and helmets that the drivers have to wear from one of the Singaporeans who worked at Shell in London, Mr Naveen. What a small world indeed! We found out that Carbon Aramid is used to make the racers' helmets as it is heat resistant. Who knew that the driver's suit had so much research poured into it to make sure it's made of the best materials to keep the driver safe in case of a crash or fire! We then explored a typical Eco Marathon car body and learnt about the choice of materials like carbon fibre to make a lightweight car that not only travels fast but is energy efficient! 

At the SEM workshop!

 

We were then given a chance to suggest modifications we would like to make to the setup and thought of incorporating our very own bright idea! Since the cars move very fast and noisily around the track, why not convert that otherwise wasted sound energy into useful energy to power the car even more! By placing an array of Zinc Oxide Nanorods around the wheels of the car or at the engine, the vibrations of sound can be captured, converted into energy and reused by the car! We had a chance to share our idea with the fellow winners and hear theirs too! It was a great session of learning!

Putting our bright idea to good use!

We then had to make our way back to Stratford town to catch our transfer to Heathrow Airport for our long flights back to Singapore!

Thank you Make the Future London!! TTFN!

Thoughts to last us a lifetime as we fly back to Singapore...

"My favourite part of the entire trip was spending time with my bestie Aminah. I cannot imagine the trip without her and I'm very grateful to Shell, Science Centre, our School Leaders and teachers for the opportunity. We made beautiful memories walking down the streets and taking in the beautiful scenery. I definitely would like to travel with her to London again!" - Siyu

"My favourite moments of the trip was getting the chance to walk around London with my friends and teachers. Everyone worked very hard to allow us to have a good time and I will never forget the opportunity we had to learn new things and to admire the beautiful scenery around us." - Aminah

"I have really enjoyed myself during this trip. I have learnt many interesting things and have gained lots of knowledge. Apart from the Science, I will never forget what I've learnt on our visit to Buckingham Palace and British Musuem. My favourite moment was definitely riding on the AcelorMittal Orbit. It was no doubt the most fun I've had in a long time! London is a very beautiful city and I will work hard and try my best to come back again in the future." - Benjamin

On that note, we've come to the end of our last blog post! Our heartfelt thanks goes out to the following people for making this trip possible and such a once in a lifetime experience for us:

Shell for sponsoring the best learning journey of our lives

Our Shell mentor Mr Bing Yeow for his valuable advice

Science Centre Singapore and STEM INC for organising The Bright Ideas Challenge and taking good care of us at the Festival

Mr Chester Ong for his unwavering support and encouragement 

Our STEM INC mentor Mr Ee Yang for guiding us and helping us improve our bright idea

Our School Leaders for believing in us and granting us this opportunity

Our Teachers for their support, understanding, care and concern over the course of this journey

Our Families for supporting us and for being proud of us

Our friends for sending us off at the airport and for being our cheerleaders

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! 

- Aminah, Benjamin & Siyu