On 19 March, we hosted our Schools Geology Challenge final at Burlington House. This year, teams were tasked with a tunnelling project proposal to supply water to a new, hypothetical theme park.
The Schools Geology Challenge is our annual competition that gives students aged 16-18 a chance to showcase their passion for geoscience while testing their teamwork, creativity and presentation skills.
To be in with a chance of reaching the final, school teams submitted a piece of media for an online audience on any geoscience topic of their choice. We received incredible entries, including a murder mystery, a parody of ‘The Traitors’ with palaeontologists, and a website dissecting the geoscience in the movie ‘The Core’ and how realistic it was (spoiler: not very!).
The competition was tough this year, as only the top 10 teams were invited to the final to compete in a problem-solving challenge.
The final – all about tunnelling
In this year’s final, teams were tasked with creating a proposal for a tunnelling project to provide a new theme park with water. The fictional ‘Burlingtopia’ aspired to be a world-class theme park in the UK, but before it could be granted a license to operate, it needed to safely and sustainably construct a utilities tunnel to bring water from a source to the park to sustain the supply.
What was particularly difficult this year was that the task required the teams to consider a lot of information. They needed to evaluate the sustainability of different water sources, the cost and time of using their chosen tunnelling method and prepare an ESG strategy for the local area. Changes in subsurface geology also presented teams with a dilemma: whether to tunnel through different geology and accept a longer project timeline, or attempt to change their route to avoid difficulties and risk requesting a higher budget.
It was amazing to watch all the teams not let this overwhelm them, tackling the task by delegating and managing their time effectively through great teamwork.
The judges
The teams had to impress our panel of judges to secure the support they needed to begin construction. Teams had to submit their tunnelling plan and present their ideas in a concise three-minute pitch. What would make the teams standout was a fully considered and justified proposal, as the judges would be looking to question the teams on their choices for the project.
A huge thank you to this year’s judging panel, which included Ruth Allington, Rod Young and Chris Jack. They brought expertise in quarry design and tunnelling as well as experience in project management to their evaluation of the team’s work.
Our 2026 winners
We are delighted to announce that the winners of the 2026 Schools Geology Challenge were Sheffield Girls High School! The team presented an impressive project proposal, taking home a prized trophy, a stunning blue agate, and £500 to put towards supporting geoscience education in their school.
Runners up this year were Caistor Grammar School and West Kirby Grammar School, who won £200 each.
Thank you all for taking part in our annual competition and congratulations on all your hard work. We look forward to hearing from the schools about how the money has been spent on geoscience.
