Archive for 2011
It’s that time of year again! at Cracking Ideas HQ we just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and thank you all for your support during 2011. It’s been a fabulously busy creative and innovative year what with competitions, challenges, games, facebook, Twitter not to mention our successful [...]
Ring the bells, hang out the banners, blow your party whistles and clap your hands … we’ve just been told the Wallace and Gromit Present a World of Cracking Ideas exhibition has reached a milestone of vast proportions! Since the Intellectual Property Office sponsored exhibition launched back in 2009 at the Science Museum, London, and subsequent [...]
Wow …. we’ve met some fabulous innovators here at CI HQ before now but this lot take the cracking biscuit! We’re talking about 7 young inventors from Cypress Schools in South Norwood, London who’ve used their creative ingenuity to come up with a potentially life-saving medical health-band device. The cracking team consisting of 10 to 11 [...]
Cracking Ideas is pleased to announce that we’ve been awarded the prestigious ‘High Impact Badge of Honour’ for our achievements in encouraging innovation, creativity and intellectual property awareness amongst young innovators in the UK. This award has been bestowed upon the Intellectual Property Office’s educational resource as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 14 – 20 November. Global [...]
Hello, All day today we have been celebrating a very special Birthday and have been tweeting and posting on facebook sharing this extraordinary anniversary with you. It’s not a person’s birthday we’ve been commemorating but an anniversary of a cracking event. Of course us being Cracking Ideas it had to be an event of a [...]
… and the sun is shining at Cracking Ideas HQ. We’ve got some cracking activities arranged for this weekend and are interested in what you might be spending your time doing Saturday and Sunday. One of the CI team is going to footie training then planning ‘extreme’ lawn mowing, another is going to paint pottery [...]
Great news everyone! The Wallace & Gromit Present a World of Cracking Ideas exhibition is extending its stay at the Life Science Centre, Newcastle – the North East’s premier science research centre and tourist attraction. We are thrilled that this longer term of residency, now into the New Year to 22 January 2012, will give [...]
Get your thinking caps on. At Cracking Ideas HQ we need your help! We would like to compile a list of cracking Wallace & Gromit style sporty activities to act as inspiration for your next competition entry. Use the comments box below, post on Facebook or tweet your suggestions @cracking_ideas to let us know your [...]
Hello Cracking Fans, The Cracking Ideas Team are on an excursion this week to Scotland! We have left Cracking Ideas HQ and headed north to Glasgow to take part in the Scottish Learning Festival at the SECC. If you are in the area please pop in and say hello, we are in Hall 4, stand [...]
Wow, it’s the end of another week and for some of you the end of the first week of a new academic term. We want to know what cracking new things you’ve been up to and how you plan on developing your inner innovator this new term. Let us know in the comments box below [...]
Are you currently planning your return to academia or perhaps you are back in school already? Whether by now you are back in the swing of school life or still buying uniform and considering which stationary to purchase don’t forget the new term presents fresh opportunities to develop your creative skills and become more innovative. Why not embrace the spirit of [...]
How goes the summer hols where you are? Here at Cracking Ideas HQ we are finding it hard to believe we are over half way through August already … we know, where has the time gone?! We hope you are having a splendid time enjoying time off school participating in vacations, sporting activities, seasonal craft, [...]
At Cracking Ideas we know it’s only the start of your summer holidays but just in case you are already flagging and looking for exciting stuff to do we have some inspiring suggestions for you to give a go. For a start why not get your thinking caps on and start planning your next cracking [...]
Congratulations Arianwen Skyrme-Croft in the 4 – 7 age group, Sula Maclean in the 8 – 11 category and Heather Rigby for the 12 – 16′s: Well deserved overall national winners for the Cracking Ideas competition 2010 – 2011 and Cracking Ideas champion title holders for the next year. Congratulations to all three of you! The [...]
Well, the 2010 -2011 finalists have been selected and the news is out! We had an amazingly difficult job picking the top entries from the 6000 or so fabulously creative entries we received but we did it … finally! And here they are: John Rabbett, Derry for ‘Coaster World’ Tyrone Wade, Derry for ‘Belter Skelter’ Lewis Smith, [...]
On the day, in 1848, Samuel F. B. Morse obtained a reissued patent for Morse code we are asking you to translate this fun Morse message – . .-. .-. .. -… .-.. . .– . .- – …. . .-. ..-. — .-. – …. . – .. — . — ..-. -.– . [...]
Yee ha! We’ve picked the 2010 – 2011 Cracking Ideas competition regional finalists! But we are going to keep you in suspense for a little bit longer before we give you the winner’s names and tell you all about their cracking theme park creations. The 12 finalist’s entries are currently winging their way over to [...]
Here at Cracking Ideas HQ we know that some of you are eager to hear about the most recent Cracking Ideas competition and we just want to reassure you that the team here are on the case! It’s true to say that we have been overwhelmed by the amount and quality of your theme park ideas. We are [...]
Did you know this week, 15-21 May, is British Sandwich Week? Well, we are always up for anything involving scrumptious food here at Cracking Ideas HQ so we want to know what you, our cracking creative followers, think is the ULTIMATE sarnie. In your opinion what’s the top filling for the mouth-watering middle and what’s [...]
107 years ago today, 11 May in 1904, famous Spanish artist Salvador Dali was born. Who would’ve known what an iconic creative figure he was to become. His innovative melting clocks in the ‘Persistence of Memory’ painting and his novel lobster telephone sculpture are iconic surrealist images but did you know that Salvador Dali is [...]
Did you know you can earn badges for the stuff you do on the Cracking Ideas website? After you’ve signed up you become a member of the Cracking Ideas community (we like to call it the Clever Cogs Club!) and it becomes possible for you to try your hand (or paw) at all sorts of new [...]
The Intellectual Property Office sponsored exhibition ‘Wallace & Gromit Present a World of Cracking Ideas’ is now open at The Life Science Centre, Newcastle Upon Tyne. At this unique interactive exhibition, brought to you by SGA Productions in collaboration with Aardman Animations, visitors will have the chance to learn about the value of intellectual property [...]
SO MANY, in fact, that we’re surrounded by piles of fabulous theme park ideas and we are still counting them all! Thank you so much to the thousands of you who entered – what an innovative lot of rising stars you are! Your thinking caps were well and truly on your heads with this year’s competition! Your [...]
31 March 2011 is a date to remember for two reasons: 1. It’s the closing date of the Cracking Ideas competition 2. It’s only a week away … YIKES! Yes, next Thursday is the final day for acceptance of your theme park competition entries. But don’t panic just yet, because if you put your mind [...]
As an alternative to the standard ‘giving up’ of something for lent we at Cracking Ideas have decided to buck the trend and start a new persuit instead! We have decided this year to go for an ‘alternative’ lent and get cracking with an innovative, new and novel interest as opposed to forfeiting something we already do. Gromit is buying into our [...]
The Cracking Ideas competition closes on Thursday 31 March and that’s less than a month away! We don’t want you to miss the opportunity to send your inventive gizmos, innovative designs, fantastic trade marks and creative copyright into us at Cracking Ideas HQ. We love seeing your entries and take time to look at [...]
The Intellectual Property Office sponsored exhibition: Wallace & Gromit Present a World of Cracking Ideas has now closed at the Glasgow Science Centre and the interactive exhibits are currently being given a well earned rest before the 16th April launch at Newcastle’s Life Science Centre. The final figures for the exhibition’s residency on Scottish soil are now in and we can [...]
The team at Cracking Ideas HQ just want to say a big, BIG, thank you to everyone who has signed up so far to our new social media pages. The number of followers on Facebook is now into triple figures and Twitter fans are close on their heels! Following Cracking Ideas on Facebook and Twitter means you are [...]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary 99 is an ‘ice cream cone made with soft ice cream with a stick of flaky chocolate inserted into it’ NOT the number of Facebook followers for Cracking Ideas! We’d love to you to be the one who pushes us into triple figures on this social media site and [...]
Do you subscribe to our e-newsletters? If you want to get the latest about Cracking Ideas straight in your in-box then sign up on the right of this page. Just enter your email address and hey presto you’ll start receiving our regular e-newsletters straight away … What a Cracking Idea!
Don’t panic they aren’t really leaving 62 West Wallaby Street -strictly speaking they are moving with their home! The innovative duo as part of the ‘A World of Cracking Ideas’ exhibition are packing up and relocating to Newcastle’s Life Science Centre in the spring. 365,000 people so far have visited ‘Wallace & Gromit Present a [...]
Hi, my name’s Martha Smith-Higgins and I am Guest Editor for this latest news article. I’m from St Albans RC High School and I’m in year 10 undertaking work experience here at Cracking Ideas. Cracking competition entries! Doing my work experience at the Intellectual Property Office, I spent time with the Cracking Ideas team. One [...]
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