Science Olympiad at Ysgol Glan Ceubal

2026-07-15

Yesterday Zoe and I went to our kids' primary school Ysgol Gymraeg Glan Ceubal primary school in Cardiff, to assist with hosting a Science Olympiad Elementary School Tournament for years 4, 5 and 6.

The entrance to Ysgol Gymraeg Glan Ceubal

Painted murals of Welsh rivers Conwy, Taf and Teifi which represent the houses of the school

The event I was given responsibility to run was a boat building competition. Each team was given the same set of materials, a fixed amount of time, and a single objective: build a boat that could hold as much weight as possible without sinking.

The materials provided for the boat-building challenge

My job was to run the weigh-in: placing weights into each boat one at a time and recording how much it held before water came over the sides. The finished boats were genuinely inventive. Some teams went for wide flat designs to spread the load, others folded the foil into deep hulls. A few included structural straws along the rim.

The finished boats from each team

The children were focused and competitive in the best possible way. Nobody was waiting to be told what to do; they just got on with it.

The event was organised brilliantly by the school and Science Olympiad UK, and it was one of those outreach activities that is genuinely easy to say yes to.

My kids were not participating but it was lovely to see them during lunch :) (I was there still adding up scores). Zoe had to leave to get to work so couldn't be in the photo:

With my kids at Ysgol Glan Ceubal Science Olympiad