Bentley Workshop - Year 5 - 20th January 2017

Year 5 were introduced to four Bentley engineers who explained that the company were considering different ways to power a new building currently under construction. After discussing the pros and cons of various power sources, the Bentley crew set a challenge for the class to design and construct an efficient wind turbine using:

• Scrap Card
• Sellotape
• Masking Tape
• Pencils
• Scissors
• String

The children had to think carefully about blade size and shape, how to fix their design to a chassis and how to make it sturdy enough to spin without falling over or being damaged. The winning design would be the one that withheld its structure and could lift the most weight in a cup when spun.

The team of engineers said how well the children worked and how much they were impressed by each groups’ design. I’ve received lots of positive feedback from Year 5 who all agreed that they thoroughly enjoyed the workshop.

Quotes (from the children):

The task was competitive but lots of fun.

It was great that it linked to our science topic – forces.

I liked that we had a chance to improve our designs after they were initially tested!

We learnt a lot about different energy sources.

It was a good challenge.