Organised and Run by Local Rotarians
Written by: Mike Gill of Horbury & Ossett Phoenix Rotary
Wednesday 20th March 2024
"A SPACE LAUNCHER, using just dowel, wood strips, card, elastic bands, glue and a sheet of thin polythene"
It sounded impossible!
The Challenge:
"Using the materials provided, design, construct and test a launching device with remotely operated trigger to propel a capsule, which, when it reached a height of 3 metres, would allow an inner parachute to disengage and float back to the point of launch."
Hosted at the Upper Batley High School, twenty teams of four in 3 age groups and representing 5 local schools, concentrated on understanding the details of the task, working out a possible solution, prepared portfolios and building a working device.
The local Inner Nine Group of Rotary Clubs provided materials, stewards and judges and generally kept an eye on the team's progress.
Rotary judges carefully marked the various stages of the preparation, build and final testing.
The day was an amazing success, Woodkirk Academy won the Foundation and Advanced categories and Horbury Academy won the Intermediate but this takes nothing away from Upper Batley High School, Whitcliffe Mount School and Mirfield Free Grammar. Special thanks to the Upper Batley High School for the use of their facilities.
This is now a national event, each year more and more Rotary Clubs throughout the country have come together to run Tournaments working with Teachers as we meet STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) requirements and local businesses offering funding and technical assistance.
The challenge for the 2017 Tournament was the same as this year's and below is a video of the 2017 Tournament winner. This slow motion video clip demonstrates a successful challenge outcome.