BUDDING young engineers from New Forest Academy demonstrated their problem solving skills by winning an engineering challenge at Beaulieu National Motor Museum.
Year 8 academy pupils beat strong competition from Forest Sandal Manor students to emerge victorious from the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s ‘Faraday Challenge’.
The winning students are now in with a chance to go to the competition’s national level finals, where they could win a £1,000 prize for their school.
Pupils visiting the motor museum for the challenge day were split into groups of five before receiving a presentation and a design brief.
They were tasked with a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and team-working challenge, which saw the groups working together to design and build projects, monitor budgets and track their creative processes with diagrams and written summaries.
Each team nominated a project leader and an accountant to monitor and track their project’s progress and budget.
Academy pupil Lydia said: “It was very fun. We learnt about circuits and how to design road safety devices. We also learnt how to budget money and use our creative skills. We presented our designs to the groups we were in and another school. We had to write a speech and then read it out at our presentation.”
Academy pupil Jack added: “We had to nominate a person for team leader and we had help with that. We also had to nominate someone to account for the money. Afterwards, we had a lot of fun walking around the car museum and going on the monorail.”
At the end of the day, the New Forest Academy pupils were announced as the winners. The team has won a place on a seasonal league table, with the top teams from across the UK receiving an all-expenses paid trip to the national competition finals in June. Teams in the finals will compete for a £1,000 cash prize for their school.
New Forest Academy assistant vice principal Adam Drury, who accompanied the students for the day, said: “The 15 students represented the New Forest Academy exceptionally well.
“Their drive and determination throughout the challenge really set them apart from the other groups. I was impressed with their creativity and engineering ideas but was totally astounded by their presentations to a full lecture room filled with the judges and competitors.
“The teams grew and developed throughout the day drawing on each other’s strengths and supporting each other’s weaknesses. I felt immense pride for the students presenting their work, and one of our teams winning the challenge day.”
