Bill Bryson Science Communication Prize winners attend Westminster award ceremony

Award-winning young science communicators will gather at the House of Commons in London today to meet author Bill Bryson and collect their awards for the 2012 RSC Bill Bryson Prize.

The RSC Bill Bryson Prize is an engaging and popular schools competition, designed to encourage and recognise clear science communication in schools and colleges.

To mark the London 2012 Olympics, the theme for this year's competition was 'Science and Sport'. The RSC received hundreds of informative and creative entries to the competition from both primary and secondary school students in the UK, as well as entries from international school students.

The winning entries were divided into four categories:

The overall winner of the competition was Jess Ham from Moulton School and Science College in Moulton, Northamptonshire who submitted a witty and beautifully-drawn comic strip story about secret chemistry agency Flask in a Mask, and their mission to save Team GB from disqualification from the Olympic Games.
The Secondary Schools winners were Gill Reich, Yuval Cohen and Joe Middleburgh from the Jews' Free School in Harrow, London, who submitted an entertaining and informative short film on food for energy and the role of proteins in muscle growth and repair.
The Year 5 and 6 Science Club from Wolvercote Primary School in Oxford won the Primary School prize for their interview with tri-athlete Noe Orzoco on what he eats and drinks to give him energy when he is training. They presented their interview in an engaging presentation alongside results from experiments they performed on ginger biscuits and potato snacks to determine their calorific content.
Students from a school in Thailand won the International Schools category. 'Mythcrushers' Melaney Chen and Tita Kanjanapas from Bangkok Patana School in Bangkok performed scientific tests to bust the myth that drinking water during exercise slows you down, and submitted an amusing and energetic video of their results.
The RSC's relationship with Bill Bryson began in 2005, when the RSC sent a copy of his book A Short History of Everything to all schools and colleges in the UK. Bill Bryson generously donated his royalties from these sales to establish a schools' science communication award. His cash donation was matched by both the RSC and his publishers, Transworld.

The theme for the RSC Bill Bryson Prize 2013 is 'How science keeps us healthy'. Entry forms are now available from the RSC website. The competition is open to students aged 5-18 and entries can be submitted in all formats from posters to powerpoints to puzzles.