We love hearing personal stories from Aardman fans around the world so we were really pleased to see how the winners of the Cracking Ideas Competition got on when they enjoyed a fun model-making session with the Aardman team as part of their prize!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvh3hL1JkFg
This lovely video explains how two year six pupils from Beaumont Primary School in Bolton came to enter the competition, which is organised by the Intellecutal Property Office each year. Classmates Dastegir Sultan and Zayd Mohammed spotted the competition in First News and persuaded their teacher to let their class get involved. As the class was working on a topic on inventions at that point, the timing was perfect!
Taking on the challenge to come up with a new food-related gadget or taste, the two boys created a multitasking machine called the 'Multzer Pro IV' which helps people complete tasks like cooking within their busy lives. The invention is not only useful but eco-friendly, too, as it's powered not by electricity but by solar panels. Futhermore, the classmates carefully followed the IPO brief to consider areas such how to protect their creation from being copied and how to spread the news about this amazing new product.
Part of the friends' prize was a model-making session with Aardman's very own Jim Parkyn - you can see the whole class having fun making Gromits and learning about stop-motion animation in the video clip. It looks like everyone had fun and the whole school are rightly proud of their budding year 6 inventors, with head teacher Valery Fryer saying:
"We are delighted and proud that two of our Year 6 pupils, Dastegir and Zayd, have won this prestigious prize, and really enjoyed working with the talented model makers of Wallace and Gromit."
If Dastegir and Zayid's story has inspired you to try your hand at inventing you're in luck - a new Cracking Ideas competition will be launched in September! We'll update you on all the details but in the meantime, you can check out the Cracking Ideas website for some background info about the competition.