On Wednesday 3 April 2019, six Year 8 students went to The Ramsey Academy for the Faraday Challenge.

The task was based around constructing a mechanism that would assist the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and creating a short presentation to demonstrate the function of the mechanism and explain how it would help the JWST.

There were three phases of the day: planning, constructing and presenting after which the adjudicator would question the team and mark them.

Unfortunately, they never found out there final placing, but the score was incredibly close with just a few points between first and last place.

The team built a pneumatic traffic light that could change height and swivel to assist the transportation of individual parts of the JWST as over 30 countries are involved in the construction of the telescope. This was achieved using a servo motor and two syringes connected to each other so when the pump was pushed down the other rose.

The team changed ideas multiple times, but in the end managed to settle on the idea of a pneumatic traffic light and executed it well.

The day was very enjoyable, and I felt like we all gained something from the day.

Max Cratherna