On Thursday 6th March Mr Mant and Mr Nicholls took 12 Highcliffe students to a Rotarian Technology competition hosted by Bournemouth Collegiate School. Schools were represented from right across the locality meaning that competition was fierce (12 schools and a total of 37 teams). Highcliffe had teams in each of the categories, KS3, 4 and 5.
The problem set was to move a Radioactive Meteorite (represented by a tennis ball) from an enclosed box to a location on a target. Students had to produce a device that allowed them to lift the Meteor from its box but not get nearer than 1.5 metres to it.
Each Key Stage had a slightly more complex problem. Resources were provided to model and test the outcome and in the afternoon the students got to test their prototypes in front of their judging panel and against the clock.
Written and drawn portfolios were also submitted to evidence how the design was developed.
Our Key Stage 3 team came fourth out of 16 teams, only narrowly missing out on the making the top three by one mark. The Key Stage 4 team came 3rd out of 14 teams with a very creative solution to picking up the meteor. Our Key Stage 5 team forgot the classic guidance of ‘simple is normally best’ and produced an extremely complicated outcome that failed to complete the challenge.
Our students behaved in an exemplary fashion and participated in an excellent event that gave a real insight into Engineering and Product Design. It exposed them to judges from BAE Systems and the Air Traffic Control centre at Swanwick and gave a true experience of solving problems under pressure, in a practical way.
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