Students at a Hillingdon school recently took part in an education tournament with more than 50 students from across the world

ACS Hillingdon International School hosted the tournament, welcoming students from the UK, America and Morocco to take on open-ended challenges related to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM).

Coinciding with British Science Week, the day-long Destination Imagination Tournament encouraged hands-on participation in a range of STEAM challenges, from designing top secret scientific gadgets to building free-standing structures, all combined with theatre improvisation and performance.

Teams of students each competed in one of five different categories: technical, scientific, improvisation, engineering and service learning, designed to help them apply their critical and creative thinking, collaboration, and project management skills.

Jeff Kaiser, Middle School teacher and co-organiser of the tournament at ACS Hillingdon, said: “Destination Imagination is a fantastic programme which inspires students to think creatively and critically and problem-solve collaboratively, developing and applying solutions to real problems across hugely important subjects, like science, maths and the arts.

“These skills are all vital in today’s ever-changing world.”

Mr Kaiser added: “The tournament is creative, fun and takes learning out of the classroom into a new arena.”

The four ACS Hillingdon teams took on challenges which involved designing, building and testing free-standing wood structures, capable of holding almost 50k, creating and improvising theatrical sketches and designing and building a moving cardboard stage, complete with innovative technical effects.

Students also had to think on their feet as they faced an instant challenge on the day.

The winning teams from the tournament, including two ACS Hillingdon teams, qualified to compete in the Destination Imagination Global Finals 2017, which last year attracted more than 17,000 attendees and over 1,400 participating teams from twenty countries.

The tournament also anticipates the opening of ACS Hillingdon’s leading-edge new Science and Technology Centre, due to be finished in May, with three new laboratories and a designated micro-biology unit.