Competition Time

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 The Institute of Acoustics is marking the International Year of Sound ('20-'21) by holding a competition for secondary schools as an opportunity to introduce students to the concept of soundscape and encourage them to listen more carefully to the world around them.

The winners will be invited to the annual awards ceremony held by the Noise Abatement Society at the House of Commons in October 2021 (COVID permitting), with the school receiving a prize of £500 plus an engraved crystal trophy. Alternative arrangements will be made if restrictions prevent the awards ceremony from occurring.

There is no limit on the number of entries from a school.

The Competition

This school competition is for a small team of students to produce a map of their local area, indicating the different sounds that can be heard at different places. Students can be from different years and classes, however they need to be from the same school. You may like to use an existing map as the backdrop or sketch your own map to use. The map should cover an area of approximately 1 km x 1 km, so that the walk you do when exploring the soundscape is no more than 2 km in length. Your map should be accompanied by a supporting description of at least 5 different places (e.g. road junction, park, playground), a list of what sounds that can be heard at each of the different places and photographs or drawings of the different sound sources making up the soundscape at each place.

To take part in this competition you will simply need: 1) A map, or a piece of paper to sketch your own map, 2) Pencils or pens. That’s it.

The Prize

The winning entry will receive £500 for their school plus an engraved crystal trophy. COVID permitting, the winning school will be invited to receive their prize at this year’s Noise Abatement Society’s John Connell Awards ceremony which is being held at the Houses of Parliament on 20th October 2021. They will be able to send up to three students who have participated in the submission, plus one parent per pupil and one teacher to collect the winning prize in person. Travel and subsistence expenses of up to £500 will also be available. If COVID prevents the awards ceremony from occurring, arrangements will be made for representatives from the Institute of Acoustics to visit the winning school to present the prizes.

How to Submit your Entry

Entries must be submitted in a standard electronic format (e.g. Word, pdf or similar) to SchoolsIYS@ioa.org.uk. Please include the name and age of the participating pupils as well as name and contact details of the school for each competition entry.

The Deadline

The deadline for entries will be 31st July 2021. Entries will be judged by a panel of experts. The decision of the judging panel will be final.