Year 9 Engineering Day

In June, 20 Year 9 pupils took part in an Engineering day hosted by a company called SmallPiece Trust who deliver exciting STEM related events for secondary school pupils.

The pupils who took part were ones that have chosen GCSE Engineering as an option and will begin lessons when they return to school in the Autumn term. The theme for the day was Aircrafts and the pupils would spend all day being aeronautical engineers, designing and building their own gliders.

The day began with an ice breaker challenge where pupils had to work in groups to create the tallest tower only using ten sheet of A4 paper, all the pupils did well but the winning team managed 114cms! The next challenge was to create a straw glider made from card, paper straws and WhiteTak. The pupils discussed the principles of flight before applying this to their own design.

The winning straw glider travelled over ten meters. The main challenge for the day was to design and build their own motorised glider using Balser wood and simple circuit containing a motor, switch, super capacitor and propeller. The pupils spent time discussing and designing in their groups before tacking the practical in stages. They worked really well together and showed great team working skills to all create a working glider. The final challenge was to test their gliders outside. All the gliders were successful and the winning team managed to reach a distance of 30 meters before it crashed to the ground.

This was a great day, it introduced the pupils to Engineering and has certainly got them excited about starting GCSE Engineering in the Autumn term.