Engineers Battle It Out During Highly-Competitive Engineering Challenge Day

Monday 13^th November saw 68 pupils from the 5^th and 6^th Forms taking part in our annual Engineering Challenge Day in the Memorial Hall.

The pupils worked in teams of five or six to design and build model electric cars. In the first of two challenges, their car had to travel along a five metre track as quickly as possible. To achieve this the pupils had to think carefully about the weight of their model as well as using appropriate gearing to get their wheels to turn at the maximum rate to provide speed. The second challenge required significant modification to the gearing and weight of their cars to enable them to provide maximum towing power. This model was tested using newton meters and also by looking at how far their car could stretch a piece of elastic.

All groups produced some excellent designs, but by the end of the second challenge Team Four and Team Eight were on equal points so it was decided to hold a tug-of-war between the two leading cars. After a tense competition, Team Four’s car narrowly won by a mere three centimetres! Huge congratulations to all involved, especially the winning team, which was made up of Henry, Fionn, Felix, Nele, George and Tom. An album of photos from the at can be seen below.

?Angela Ashworth - Head of Physics