Science Week shapes the engineers of the future

Science Week 2020 is here! This week our Middle School and Senior College students have celebrated a week of engineering, design and innovation as they create solutions to solve complex climate change, medical and construction problems.

Current restrictions meant our usual Science Fair could not take place this year. Our Science team rose to the challenge, creating a set of challenges that required students to look at problems from all angles, come up with solutions and test them out.

Challenge 1: Create an apartment block that can withstand an earthquake

Year 9 students designed and built a tower between 35cm and 70cm high. Using straws, masking tape and recycled polystyrene boards, teams of three to four worked together to create their tower. A tray was mounted at the top of the tower to place weights on. Each tower was placed carefully on to vibrating exercise equipment to reenact an earthquake and increasing weights were added to a tray mounted to the top of the tower.

Scores were given for the height of the tower and amount of weight the tower could withstand before collapsing during earthquake simulation.

Challenge 2: Design a bionic hand 

Students in Year 8 were assigned the task of creating and building a bionic hand to give independence back to patients who had lost a hand through injury or illness. 

Students were able to create their 'hands' using only string, straws, rubber bands and blue tack. Tests took place to see whether the hand could pick up or grasp items. Students were also tested on the hands ability to sign letters of the alphabet.

Challenge 3: Bridge building

Year 10 students were challenged to build a lightweight yet strong bridge capable of supporting a trolley carrying gold! The lighter the bridge, the more points they received. Only limited quantities of balsa wood, paddle pop sticks, masking tape, paperclips and thumbtacks could be used for the construction, so some creative thinking was required to create a sturdy and functional bridge.

Challenge 4: Furniture design

Year 7 had the task of designing a cost effective chair that could carry the weight of two 'heavy' family pets.

A number of design rules required students to think creatively and work together as a cohesive team to design a chair that met the specifications. Teams were penalised if they used too many resources that would add to the cost of the build.

The Science Week challenges gave students space to develop their design thinking, empathy, creativity and teamwork skills in practical and fun ways. 

An overarching theme of sustainability saw each project carefully dismantled to recycle the materials. Every paperclip, plastic straw and paddle pop was carefully removed, ready for use again in future challenges.

Congratulations to all the winners and problem solvers.