King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny takes third place in engineering competition
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
The final was held at the Big Bang Fair which is billed as the UK's largest single celebration of science and engineering.
This was the culmination of 35 events across the UK which has seen 210 schools go head-to-head. Each school was challenged to design and make a prototype device that would allow homeowners to remove water out of their house during periods of flooding.
Each of the three teams in the final was challenged to design a device that can be fitted with a simple water filtration system allowing the people of Haiti to collect water from Port au Prince's Artibonite River and at the same time, filter it to a standard that is safe to drink (after boiling).
Gareth James, the IET's Head of Education, said, "The UK's journey to a low-carbon economy makes the next generation of engineers and scientists potentially among the most important in our history. Thousands of high quality engineers will be needed to make it a reality. We will face a number of challenges though, such as where the next generation of engineers and scientists will come from. This is why events like the Big Bang are vital in raising the profile of engineering to young people."
Research by EngineeringUK suggests that the UK will need to recruit 587,000 new workers into engineering and manufacturing over the period 2007 - 2017. At present there is a significant shortage of STEM graduates and teachers. The Big Bang Fair aims to reinvigorate interest among young people in pursuing a STEM career.
Teacher Steve Phillips, said: "In the regional heat, the King Henry team of six pupils (Amy Jones, Ffion Bartlett, Rebecca Brinn, Joel Leeb-du Toit, Max Williams and Kai Mortlock) built a scooping mechanism to move water 30cm up into a higher tray. However, for the finals in Manchester the team decided to use a pump as it was calculated to be more efficient and moved water faster. We thought about doing a similar product to before, but instead, a pump turned out to be better.
"We used two cylinders instead of one to reduce pressure and chances of breaking. The team beat five teams in the regionals, including the host team (who entered two teams) and won £250 prize money and a trophy. In the finals they came 3rd and won £250 again, coming just one point behind the Scottish team from Dumfries."
