Year 8 Faraday Challenge Day

36 Year 8 students (future engineers) had the opportunity to participate in this year's IET Faraday Challenge. The IET is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community. The Faraday Challenge Days allow students across the UK to research, design and create solutions to genuinely challenging engineering problems.

This year's challenge was based on designing, building and presenting a prototype to be fitted to a drone. After an introduction by Phil Hart from the IET, the six teams were challenged with designing and making their prototypes without any help from teaching staff.

 The teams had to think carefully about what resources were needed as they only had a limited amount of 'Faraday Money' to spend on their equipment. Students could 'purchase' a range of resources, including motors, lights, sensors, wheels and connections.

Throughout the challenge, the teams were judged on various criteria, including design, use of resources, teamwork, and presentation. The six teams created prototypes of their innovative products.

 At the end of the afternoon, each team had to make a formal presentation on their idea to the rest of the teams and face a grilling from the Phil Hart who ran the event.

Team 5, won with their imaginative prototype. The winners received individual gift vouchers and a trophy for our school. All students received certificates for taking part in the Faraday Challenge and graduating as an Industrial Cadet at the Challenger Level certificates. 

Well done to the 36 young engineers that took part and a massive congratulations to the winning team: Elitsa (8H), Bella (8H), Tuana (8M) Rory(8C), Aaron (8C) and Nanaka (8S). We are sure that the pupils will carry forward the skills they practised during the day. Watch this space for their designs in the future!