On Thursday, 60 of our most able scientists took part in the Young Engineers Energiser Event here at school. Each session lasted half a day and comprised a mixture of practical and theoretical activities designed to encourage students to consider a future career in one of the STEM subjects, [science, technology, engineering and maths].

During the event, the students learnt about how a capacitor supplies energy to a motor and built and tested a model car, to ensure it travelled in a straight line, prior to racing it against the other teams’ cars.

Pupils were also asked to design a turbine, first sketching their ideas then coming up with several prototype blade designs. They were given the chance to test the electrical output from different blades before producing a final version to put into direct competition with those of the other groups,

Mr Ges Cocker, the representative from Young Engineers who came to  run the sessions led a discussion on global energy use, including renewable and non-renewable energy sources and offered advice as the students designed and tested a turbine to discover which design would generate the highest voltage.

“It was a pleasure to see our talented young scientists tackling the challenges,” said Mr Culver who arranged the event. “The ‘Young Engineers’ prizes will be announced next week.”