Last Wednesday 50 students from Thurrock schools met at the Thurrock Cruise terminal to take part in this year’s Technology Tournament. The event was organised by the Rotary Club of Grays Thurrock, the South Essex College and supported by the Tilbury Cruise Terminal.
This year the students were set the challenge of building a model airboat, also known as a fan boat, from the material provided. The event started at 13.00 hrs and during the next couple of hours the students had to design their boat, solder wires to the electric motor and cut and glue the boats structure. Once the boat was built there was a water trough where the students could launch there boats and see how there design performed. At this point of time for some it was back to the drawing board as some boats went around in circles, some took on water and others just did not function as was expected.
At 15.30 the competition started so everyone congregated at the water trough. Each boat was launched where it was judged for speed, straight line design and then there was an award for general team work. The overall winning team came from Gable Hall School. Rotarian Nicholas Wilkinson said “the event was designed to be a fun afternoon with an element of learning and I think we achieved that aim. Already people are talking about next year’s event”.
the winners back at school with the proud Headmaster
