Innovation in Action: Year 8s Rise to the Faraday Challenge

Split into six teams, the students were tasked with identifying a real-world problem, then planning, designing, and building a solution.

Six STEM ambassadors attended the event to judge each entry, scoring students on their designs, planning, and teamwork. All ambassadors came from established STEM backgrounds and kept a keen eye on the students’ ideas as they evolved from paper to prototype.

Each team was given a budget of ‘money’ to purchase materials for their build. The resulting ideas were both broad and imaginative – from treadmills to an alarm that reminds people to take their medicine.

After a full day of creativity and collaboration, the students pitched their ideas to the ambassadors, who tallied the scores and announced the winning team.

Taking the top prize were Isabella, Grace, Molly, Samuel, Kenzie, and Gethin, who designed an automatic pot stirrer to support people with disabilities.

The Faraday Challenge was a fantastic opportunity for our students to showcase their creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills in a real-world engineering context. Congratulations to all who took part – and a special well done to our winning team for their thoughtful and inclusive invention.