DIY IET Faraday® Challenge - Lighthouse keeper transfer

This Primary IET Faraday® DIY Challenge Challenge Day encourages students to consider how engineers work together to solve real-life problems. It enables students to experience the knowledge, understandings and skills engineers use within their work and the ways in which their strengths can be used to achieve an effective outcome.

The students will need to work as a team to design a way of getting lighthouse keepers back to the mainland from a lighthouse based on a small island 200 metres from the nearest land. The design will need to use a zip line to carry the keeper safely across the waves which can be high during storms.

The students will have access to the Faraday shop and a budget of Faraday money. They will need to plan what resources to buy and manage and record their budget. At times they may need to make decisions about affordability and effective use and should be encouraged to identify alternative, possibly cheaper, approaches to their final designs.

At the end of the challenge day students will be asked to present their prototypes by demonstrating how their design could carry the lighthouse keeper safely to the mainland.

Designed for six teams of six students (36 students in total) aged 8-11 years, the challenge encourages the development of students’ problem solving, team working and communication skills.

This activity day can be tailored to the needs of your school and your students by adapting the PowerPoint presentation and the editable student booklet.

The complete set of free downloadable materials includes:

Teachers’ pack
A list of the practical materials needed, presenters’ notes highlighting key areas and reinforcing key themes throughout the day, some handy hints on how to deliver the day . . . plus printable Faradays currency and student certificates.

Student booklet
Available as an editable MSWord document to allow the booklet to be adapted to meets the needs of your students and your school.

PowerPoint presentation
A step-by-step guide for your students throughout the day, with supporting notes for the delivery of the presentation.

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