Press Release

GOVERNMENT MINISTER PRAISES ROTARY TECHNOLOGY TOURNAMENT

3rd March 2006

John Hutton, secretary of state at the Department for Work and Pensions praised the Rotary Technology Tournament when he called in to see the event in full flow in his constituency of Barrow and Furness.

“It’s great to see the ingenuity and imagination that the teams have shown” he said.

“They seem to have enjoyed the challenge and shown a great deal of flair” Asked whether he thought the day might help the students in later life he said “It’s hard to tell, but something like this is important in furthering engineering, which is particularly important in the Barrow area.

23 student teams from schools in South Cumbria together with teams from Barrow 6th Form College and BAE Systems Apprentices took part in the Barrow event.

Teams were asked to design and build a model with that incorporated a flashing light and the task involved considering several solutions and selecting the most appropriate. They then had to demonstrate their model to show how well it fulfilled the criteria.
The overall aim was not only to have an exciting and enjoyable day but to allow every one of the entrants to exercise and develop their skills, and above all participate in team working within a time constraint.

The Barrow event was one of 10 in Cumbria and Lancashire, and scores of others throughout the country held under the direction of District and club Youth Activities committees.