Technology Tournament triumph
The annual Rotary Club of Cambridge’s Technology Tournament for Year 9 students from local schools took place on Tuesday 7 February. Our STEM Co-ordinator and teacher of Physics, Mrs Tessa Shercliff, took two teams of four students from our school to participate in the competition alongside nine other teams, and both of our teams won awards on the day. The girls were primarily selected either because they are STEM scholars or keen members of the STEM clubs - Hacksaw Club, Young Engineers and Let's Build.
Team 1, consisting of Zara K., Keeva M., Bella T. and Emily O., won the award for the best portfolio, and Team 2, consisting of Sofia B.F., Alice K., Katie H. and Reyati L., won the award for overcoming difficulties. Well done to both teams! We were particularly delighted with the Cambridge News’ coverage of the tournament, which showed, alongside the headline ‘Young Engineers in the pipeline’, two photos of our teams of girls.
Bella, who was part of Team 1, wrote about the tournament and so in her own words you can read about the challenge that was set and how the girls approached the situation.
“We had to design and build a vehicle within three hours. The vehicle had to travel down a pipeline under a bridge, and push debris through the pipe to clear any blockages. The criteria were that the vehicle needed an electric motor and had to be able to push all debris through the pipe. The vehicle had to be controlled remotely with an electrical switch and had to include a logo for a charity of our choice. We were also told that if the vehicle could complete the task within five seconds, bonus points would be added.
Our group (Team 1) decided that we would use a snowplough as the inspiration for our vehicle. We took various features and included them in our design, such as traction on the wheels, a plough in the front and motorising the front wheels.
We first had to design our vehicle, which was rather challenging, as we had to take into account that the pipe was narrow, curved and slippery. We used rubber bands on the wheels to grip onto the surface, however we later had to take them off as the glue adhering them was too lumpy and destabilised the vehicle. The challenges we faced were difficult, but we managed to overcome them by working efficiently as a team. We had to decide how many wheels we would use and whether to put the power in the front or back wheels. We changed the design many times, to accommodate the number of wheels. Drilling into the wood was tricky as we had to be careful that it didn't split. The switch had to be made from scratch and had to be remote, which we made using drawing pins and cardboard. The time limit was a little stressful and we had to work under pressure to produce a working vehicle and portfolio.
Our award was for our portfolio, which documented the whole process, from start to finish, including all our design sketches. We finished on time and the judges were impressed by our vehicle and how neat and comprehensive our portfolio was. It was a great day, and we are glad we went. We all feel very proud to bring an award back for our school.”