Problem solving and teambuilding skills are vitally important in any workplace. These are activities designed to develop students’ understanding and application of technological concepts and skills by working in teams to solve a specified problem. Students are required to develop their own ideas and use initiative and creativity to solve problems. Current problems include:
‘Rail Challenge’ – problems on; control signalling, overhead gantry, locomotive design, and signal mechanisms.
‘Flying high’ - problems focusing on flight, i.e. paper aeroplanes, helicopters, etc.
‘Streamlining’ - problems where children make a shape from high density foam such as an railway locomotive, aircraft fuselage, car, and test it in a wind tunnel.
‘Shock Box’ – Children build a box to protect important contents (an egg) and test it by dropping it onto a hard surface.
‘Space Capsule’ – Children build a parachute for the space capsule (an egg) that returns to earth gently!
‘Self-Righting Buoy’, To identify people who have capsized at sea children build a buoy that is tested to see if it will right itself.
‘Lifting the Matthew’ – using gears children build a lifting device.
