faraday challenge day

In a fantastic opportunity today (that will be repeated next week due to high demand!) a cohort of our Year 8 students were keen to participate in the Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Faraday Engineering Challenge Day. 

As our Physics department explains: "The primary goal of the day is to provide students with a first hand experience of the captivating, problem-solving, and interdisciplinary aspects of engineering". 

And as you can see from our lead picture, our aspiring engineers were joined by special guest Mrs Wall, who was keen to learn more about their programme and designs.

It was also lovely to welcome back our former Physics teacher Mrs Motiwala (pictured below right) to head up the day and to lead proceedings, as she has long been passionate about the Faraday Challenge and STEM opportunities for our students.

Throughout the day in our Conference Room, the students worked together with the support of staff on constructing a rocket model. 

The students were tasked with assembling and programming a rocket carrier for transporting the rocket to the launch site, which they would ultimately launch using compressed air.

In each team, students assumed the role and responsibility of accountant, software engineer, mechanical engineer, and aerospace engineer.

And our Science department is particularly proud to encourage female students to participate, as women are currently under-represented in the field of engineering, despite it offering highly paid, flexible, and stimulating career opportunities.

After a break for lunch, it was time for the teams to reassemble, deliver their presentations, and test their robots, while Mrs Motiwala evaluated and awarded points for completion of each part of the procedure:

It was then time to head out onto our front field where Mr Leech awaited with the ultimate test: the compressed air ready for launch!

Each team eagerly awaited their turn and for their designated aerospace engineer to take their place to test the prototype:

While Mrs Motiwala analysed the data and verified the results back inside, our students enjoyed a video screening from engineers at the IET, congratulating them on their efforts, and reiterating the core importance of engineering to society and to the wider world. And the fact that their participation in today's challenge was a great experience of the essentials of engineering as a profession, and of all its challenges and rewards to rebuild, retest, and rethink in order to move forward.

As Mrs Motiwala herself told the students, engineering is everything and everywhere, and as our students' enjoyment of today was clearly demonstrable, we are sure that they have been inspired to consider it as a career.

The day ended with a celebration of the winning team - Team 7 - who scored the most points for factors including the distance of travel of their rocket, and their ace accountancy skills. Really well done!

Huge congratulations to all of our students for their inspired and dedicated work and enthusiasm today. And huge thanks to all the staff who organised and supported the event, not least technicians Mr Sharp and Mrs Yarwood for all their hard work setting up.

And a very special thanks to Mrs Motiwala for rejoining us for this important date in our STEM calendar.

We are looking forward to seeing Mrs Motiwala again next week when another cohort of our Year 8s take part in the challenge: watch this space for updates!