Cooper, Lilly, Jacob, Dakota, Jack and Karla represented Carisbrooke College at the annual Faraday Challenge, hosted at Christ the King College by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET). The challenge is a competition in which pupils are given a brief – this year the theme was on road safety – and then asked to design, produce and present a prototype product that meets the criteria of the brief. Pupils are given a budget of ‘Faraday Bucks’, which they must use to buy electrical and mechanical components from a ‘shop station’ (run by the IET) which they use to make their product.

It should be stressed that the pupils do not receive any help from teachers or adults, aside from purely technical guidance from the judges if they get stuck, making the engagement, dedication and hard work from the pupils all the more impressive.

Inspired by island roads, the team came up with an idea of a device that alerts cars on blind corners that an on-coming car is coming. Over the course of the day, our six Year 8 pupils impressed the judges with their prototype, organisation skills and teamwork, as well as their confident presentation.

They went on to beat the teams from Island Free School, Ryde School, Priory and 2 teams from Christ the King to win! Only 3 points separated the top 3 teams, and the judges expressed that they were particularly impressed by the quality of the prototype, the pragmatism and simplicity of their idea, and the team’s meticulous and clear write-up of their project! They now have a chance at attending the grand finals at Silverstone this summer, once all 251 schools in the project cave competed!