SATRO Science and Engineering Challenge

For many years, teams from Churcher’s have participated with enthusiasm and a fair degree of success in the SATRO Problem Solving Challenge, which sees schools from across the country compete to solve a tricky engineering problem using nothing more than their wits, ingenuity and a box of handy materials. The usual format, with teams competing under the same roof, was not possible this year but the organisers found a way to make the event happen by distributing the required equipment directly to the schools, allowing each to host its own “virtual” challenge. Thanks and congratulations to the educational charity SATRO for their efforts in making the event take place.

It was clear from the start that this year’s challenge would be a particularly fiendish one. Our teams from the 2^nd year (Guy Banning, Ollie Eaton, Anthony Eldridge, Zhara Ireland, Cecily Morrogh and Monty Zaltzman), 4^th year (Harry Haynes, Laurie Horwood, Louisa Moor, Julia Nicholls, Caitlin Stevens and Will Tomalin) and Lower 6^th (George Bliss, James Hill, Ellie Houghton, Emily Killing, Seb Royds and Isabelle Whittle), competing against others in the same age group, had to design and build a device to allow an electric motor to move in a horizontal circle, moving only due to the force exerted by a propeller attached to the motor. The propeller itself, along with all the supporting structure, would have to be manufactured from some basic materials and ready to test in just 90 minutes.

Understanding the criteria by which a project will be evaluated is vital in engineering and our teams did well to optimise their designs to maximise the radius of the circle in which their motors would move, despite finding it difficult to produce as much actual motion as they had hoped to see.  A clever trigger mechanism enabled the Lower 6^th team’s device to raise a flag, scoring valuable bonus points. As the teams headed home it was hard for anyone to know whether the scores they had achieved were above or below par, but just after the end of term we received the welcome news that both our 2^nd year and Lower 6^th teams had emerged as victors in their categories!

The members of all three of our teams showed great potential as scientists and engineers of the future, impressing not just with their ingenuity but also their determination and perseverance in the face of such a complex challenge. Many congratulations to them all.

Written by R Whittle, Teacher of  Physics and Chemistry