Budding engineers have been praised for their excellence in innovation, after completing a prestigious national design project during lockdown.
Two teams of Year 12 A-Level Physics students worked with industry experts to design and present an engineering project that could be of significant use to a local engineering company.
The national scheme is run by the Engineering Development Trust, the largest provider of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) enrichment activities for UK students.
One team looked into radiation shielding methods, under the supervision of Wolverhampton-based ANSALDO Nuclear, whilst the other group developed a reservoir overflow alongside professionals from Mott Macdonald Bentley, based in Shifnal.
Both teams held weekly meetings with their engineers after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays, before travelling to Loughborough University early in the year for a two-day residential, which allowed them to start work on the building and prototype testing of their projects.
Physics Teacher, Mr A Britton, said: “The weekly meetings with company engineers continued until this year’s unfortunate Covid-19 lockdown. The meetings focused on the completion of the prototypes, producing a 40 page engineering report and also a 15-minute power point presentation.
“After forging cross-curricular links with the EDT a few years ago, the teams completed their models using the school workshops.
“Usually in early May the teams display their models at a National Celebration and Assessment Day, where over 300 students set up stands to display their projects and make presentations assessed by a panel of judges comprising of business directors and engineers.
“Due to the circumstances this year, the teams collaborated online to successfully complete their reports under lockdown.
“The Highfields teams have now received written feedback on their reports in which the assessors commented on the excellent planning during the early stages and the professional quality of the well organised reports.”
All of the students involved have now successfully qualified for the EES Gold Industrial Cadets Awards and Gold CREST Award, which is Britain's largest national award scheme for project work in the STEM subjects.
