Students rise to challenge
13th March 2018
A team of enthusiastic young scientists from Melbourn invented a ride for those visitors to Thorpe Park who aren’t adrenalin junkies.
The six Year 8 students, all regulars at Melbourn’s after-school science club, took part in the Faraday Challenge organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and held at Comberton Village College.
The teams were all tasked with becoming engineers for the day, developing a new attraction for Thorpe Park for those who wanted an alternative to the ‘scary’ rides and working on their teamwork, design, production and presentation skills. They were given a virtual budget to buy equipment and included designing the product to a finished article then making a presentation about it.
The Melbourn team came up with a ride based on cogs run by a motor. The ride, in the design of a pirate ship, would attach to the cogs. The prototype built by the students showed the cogs spinning.
They were up against teams of students from Comberton and St Peter’s, Huntingdon, - like Melbourn part of The Cam Academy Trust – and Bassingbourn.
Science teacher Nayim Rahman said: “It was a great event and all the pupils were thoroughly engaged throughout. They didn’t win it, but gave it a mighty big effort.”
The honours went to students from Comberton who shared £60 of Amazon vouchers for their ‘escape room’.
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