Competing at the Annual Whitby and District Technology Tournament

On the last day of term, several teams from Fyling Hall School headed to the Whitby Spa Pavillion to compete in the annual Whitby and District Technology Tournament. The school entered teams in the Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced levels and everyone that took part did a fantastic job.

On arrival, the students were given a workstation, and the teachers were not allowed to support students, so they were on their own. They were given an envelope with their task. This year it was to launch a “space shuttle” 3 meters and then get it to land as close to the launch as possible – like a lunar module.“We had to build a catapult which was hard, but it hit the roof when we launched things!” explained a memeber of our year 8 team.

The task was based on engineering principals, with a limited selection of materials available to use in order to inspire creativity and planning in achieving the specified aims. The competion ran for most of the day with everyone rising to the challenge and displaying excellent teamwork.

“I liked how powerful our creation was. It broke once but we fixed it eventually. I’m really pleased about how well we worked as a team.” commented a year 10 student, and another from year 12 explained how the day went for their team. “We made improvement after improvement and although it took nearly all the time, we managed to build a launcher that worked.” 

A member of the year 8 team added, “I really enjoyed that we had to work in a group and problem solve. I really enjoyed the task. It appeared easy but we had some problems for example it was too powerful, it didn’t fly straight and trying to create a trigger. Overall, I really enjoyed the whole day.”

Judging and Results at The Technology Tournament

Judges  – Rotary Club members and guests with backgrounds in engineering, technology and design – assessed the teams on planning and teamwork, design analysis, design development and realisation. A year 10 student explained “I really enjoyed my day because it was very fun,  I loved it. The members of the Rotary club were very kind and nice. We had fun designing our model and testing it” 

The teams were required to not only complete the task but also to produce a Project Portfolio to document and record their work. The portfolio included drawings and working sketches, design principles and analysis, the reasons for choosing the final design and how the team was being organised.

They also needed to consider how ideas were thought of and developed and describe the challenges that had to be overcome. “There were heated discussions, but we overcame this.” commented a member of the year 12 team.

Fyling Hall School teams worked outstandingly. The foundation team made up of year 8 students Matilda F, Megan F, Megan W and Edward C, and the advanced (year 12) team of Phoebe, Megan, Alec and Olivia both won first prize in their class.

The foundation team also won the trophy for outstanding teamwork out of all 15 teams in the competiotion. The intermediate team of Penny, Daisy, Ben and Dylan from year 10 worked very well.  The judges commented that their test run was perfect however on the judged run it unfortunately just didn’t perform as well.

What Our Students Thought of the Technology Tournament

“I really enjoyed it; I liked building the sling shout and working together. We learnt a lot and it was a great experience, I would definitely go again.”  – year 8 student.

“I have never done anything like this before but would definitely do it again.” – year 8 student.

“It was an amazing day; it was great fun to build new things and overcome challenges.” – year 12 student.

Well done to everyone that took part and we look forward to next year’s competition.