Boys rise to design challenge in annual contest

The ingenuity and problem-solving skills of Tonbridge boys were put to the test in the annual Design Technology and Engineering inter-house challenge.

This year’s theme, ‘Bank Raid’, set boys the task of designing and building a device that could lift objects out of a large box, representing a bank vault.

Their creations had to remove ‘valuables’ including a painting, a gold bar, a sliver block and a vase within a five-minute time limit, and deposit them in another place, with strictly no touching of the objects by hand until the task was completed.

Working in teams of four, boys created a variety of contraptions: the final contest was a tense affair, as only one boy per team was allowed to operate the various pulleys and levers on each device as he collected the items. Points were awarded for each item retrieved, with extra points awarded for the quality of build and for innovative ways of solving the challenge.

Whitworth House won first prize, with Parkside a close second and Smythe third.

Richard Day, Head of Design, Technology and Engineering, said: “It was great to see boys working together and producing some quite ingenious contraptions. This was a tough brief, carried out to a tight timescale, and it was very pleasing to see so many different approaches to the task. Congratulations to the winners and to all the boys who took part – I think they all learned a lot but also had fun along the way.”

Pictured: The winning team from Whitworth House with the DTE inter-house challenge trophy.