science week day 3

We are now in the third day of our week's programme of British Science Week celebrations. There will be a great many fantastic events taking place over the lunch break - watch this space - but to get things rolling, our Design Technology department, in a Science collaboration, and to chime with the theme of this year's Science Week: change and adapt, have organised a great opportunity for our Year 8 and 9 students to construct a model of a trebuchet.

Just one of the groups who will be participating throughout the day can be seen in action above and below.

The trebuchet was used as a siege weapon in the Middle Ages, and, on average, they could fling material of around 350 pounds onto enemy territory, with soldiers pulling the ropes. Our students have, of course, been making scale models, with a counter-weight to pull the ropes!

They were tasked with following designs and utilising a range of tools and equipment in our DT facilities to carefully craft and construct the trebuchet from plywood and pipe.

Tools deployed included jigsaws, sanders and hand drills.

Really well done all, with huge thanks to Mr Barber and Mr Reid for arranging this fantastic enrichment experience for our students, and yet another great opportunity for hands-on learning!