Year 8 Faraday Challenge

Today 6 year 8 pupils from STEM club visited Pudsey Grange HIgh School to take part in the IET Faraday 2010 engineering challenge. We were set with the challenge of creating a prototype for home owners to use to move the water out of their houses when it flooded. Although it doesn't seem like it, this is a really serious issue. Just 25cm of water can knock you off your feet and carry you away as the current is so fast. We made a pump mechanism to carry the water out of your home and outside. Originally, we made our device using two acrylic tubes to maximise the flow of water cleared out of your house in a flood. This worked, until we came to test it. As we pumped the water from one tray into another, the valve pushing the water down and up snapped off the dowell! Aaargh!! Our device had to go to A&E to be repaired by 'Guy the technician' just minuites before our presentation in front of 6 pupils from the 5 other schools competing in the challenge.

We all took on different roles, including Grace being the video learning log manager. Click on the video below to find out more!

How did we do? We were really pleased to still come third after all our problems and even more proud to be awarded top marks for our teamwork. We will certainly look forward to supporting next year's challenge! :)

Eggs Factor Project

This week we are starting a project called Eggs Factor, Egg Chasm Crossing. In this project we have to transport an egg safetly across the chasm without breaking it. We are doing the KS3 one where you must transport the egg over 1.75m. You can't touch the egg at anytime and it must not touch the floor. You are not aloud to catapult the egg or fly the egg across the distance. We have looked at the Egg Chasm website to view other peoples. Click here to find out more details. Some of the designs involve gravity related things such as ramps for the egg to go down and carts for the egg to go in.