Mrs M. Ridgeon,  Y10 Leader writes:

On Friday 15^th February, the last day of half term, Mr Green and I took nine students from Y10 to the 2019 UK Regional Finals for F1 in Schools UK competition.  The event was held in Orpington and run from 8.30am till 4.30pm.  The students, led by myself and Mr Green, had been working towards this for eight weeks, but most teams we were going up against had either been working on it for longer, or taken part in a final before.  Our nine students were part of two teams: QUILLION and PROJECT S.  With the help of Mr Bell, Mr Beevor, Miss Shah, Mr Christodoulou, Mr Schofield we were able to enter a car from each time into the competition, after many a failed 3D printing attempt!

Ella Griffin, 10B, Team Leader for Quillion writes:

The competition consisted of the marketing, enterprise and engineering of your own mini version of a F1 car. As a team we produced two portfolios one for engineering and one for enterprise, which would be judged on as well as the racing of the car. Throughout the day we were judged on each element of the project, which included a review of both portfolios, assessment of our pit display, the actual racing of our car and a verbal presentation. Due to not having a lot of experience in the competition we felt a little disheartened looking at our opponents pit displays and portfolios however, that didn’t last long and we saw it as a learning experience and were thrilled to win the award for our pit display due to our homemade wind tunnel and aerodynamic testing videos. Overall the day was more of a success than we expected and all of us would love to have another go as we now have a better understanding, which will hopefully push us to win.

“A fantastic experience which our team have learnt a lot from.” Archie Jennings 10K

“An enjoyable trip providing the team with both experience and ideas.” Louis Ross 10H

“It was very interesting to see the ideas of others and draw inspiration from their designs.” Joshua Gaydon 10A

Overall as leader of Year 10 I couldn’t have been more proud of them, I believe it is events like this which can inspire students into specific pathways and I can’t wait to return, hopefully with them and more students, later this calendar year.

 

Miss R. Hooper, Curriculum Leader: Science, STEM Leader, writes:

On Tuesday 26th September, almost 90 of our Year 9’s had the privilege of participating in the RAF 100 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) day. It was a fun-filled day of hands on, STEM based activities linked to situations engineers of the RAF may be required to complete.

The day kick started with the ‘Chain Home’ activity where the teams were to construct a ‘radar tower’ with only paper straws and limited masking tape that was to hold as much mass as possible. Teams had to utilise their maths and science knowledge to consider the strength of a variety of shapes and had to cooperate to make the most of their limited time.

The next activity required the application of the students’ physics knowledge as they had to design, build and test an ‘aircraft’ that was powered using elastic potential energy. Thankfully, our Year 9’s are currently learning about energy transfers in science and it was great to see them discussing the impact of mass, friction and the requirements of aerodynamics to get their aircraft moving. There were many excellent designs and most worked!

After a presentation about the huge range of engineering roles in the RAF and the importance of studying STEM subjects at GCSE and beyond, students started their final task. This required programming a small robot which had to successfully navigate a ‘disaster zone’ course to reach survivors. This task required excellent team work, accuracy, planning and plenty of persistence for students to work out how to navigate the robot through the course.

The students worked exceptionally well and did themselves proud in what they produced. This meant that it was not easy to decide the overall winning group. There was however one team that demonstrated real persistence, giving them the edge over the others.

The day was a huge success and the students walked away with not only being able to see the applications of STEM subjects in real world contexts but we hope they are inspired to become the engineers of the future.

“The day has taught me about careers you can have in engineering and the importance of doing the best we can in our GCSE’s.” Charlotte Preston 9K

“I liked that we got to work well as a team and I enjoyed doing multiple tasks.” Joshua Young 9K

“I enjoyed the hands on work, especially programming the robot.” Alex Douglas 9A