THIRTY-SIX students in six different teams from St Andrew’s School recently displayed high focus and teamwork as they worked together to create the best rocket for a chance to win the “Mission to Mars” challenge at the Multipurpose Hall of St Andrew’s School.

Organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Brunei Young Professional Section (YPS) 2015 for the first time ever in the nation, the IET Faraday Do-It-Yourself ‘Mission to Mars’ was designed for students, aged 12 to 13 years old, who are in Years Eight and Nine.

The students were tasked to act as engineer specialists recruited by a mock company known as “Make it 2 Mars” to establish a human settlement on the planet Mars by 2023. They were challenged to design and construct a rocket, which will transport supplies by means of Earth orbit to the astronauts on Mars, as well as to build a system to transport their rocket to the launch site for testing.

The challenge gave students the experience of how it would be like to be a part of an actual engineering team as in addition to creating the prototype, they also had to justify their ideas, cost and implementation plans to three of the judges in order to win the prize.

Present to give the cash prize of $120 as well as certificates to the winning team was the IET Brunei Darussalam Chairperson for 2014-2015 Session, Simon Leong Kian Ann.

The competition aimed to give students the opportunity to research, design and make prototype solutions to genuinely tough engineering problems, which is in line with the IET Brunei vision and mission to promote the general advancement of science, engineering and technology and to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas on these subjects amongst the general, particularly in the students.

“The IET personnel is a non-governmental organisation and they approached our school with this pilot project which they want to do with other schools as well eventually. They gave us four different challenges to select from for our students. We picked ‘Mission to Mars’ and all the materials used are mainly recycable materials provided by IET,” said the Head of Science Department, Jesudass.

“The students find it quite interesting but that there isn’t enough time as they only had three and a half hours to accomplish it. They really enjoyed themselves and it is great exposure for them. These kinds of competition are held in the UK and other places but it’s the first time it has been done in Brunei so far,” he added.

For more information about the IET DIY Faraday challenge, please visithttp://faraday.theiet.org/stem-activity-days/diy-challenge/index.cfm or www.theiet.org.bn.

The Brunei Times