Innovative new Schools Programme to find Norfolk’s future engineers piloted in Breckland School - 19th December 2007
Around 50 Year 11 students at Litcham High School took part in an action packed, innovative new activity day on 18th December. The ‘REV-Italise’ initiative, designed for Breckland Council’s Rural Enterprise Valley (REV) Project tasked students with designing and developing a new eco-vehicle, targeted at teenagers, whilst developing a range of essential business aptitudes such as team-working, research, enterprise, IT, negotiation, marketing and presentation skills.
The day-long event, developed by consultants Camouflaged Learning, included a number of ‘experts’ on-hand for students to purchase consultancy support and run ideas past, including members of the REV team, Steve Cross, a Chassis Design Engineer from Norfolk based Lotus Cars and Ben Handford from Naked Marketing.
The winning team, selected by a panel of expert judges, developed a bespoke single-seater ‘Chameleon Car’ which changes colour according to the mood of the driver and is powered by a mixture of solar and wind energy. Additional features of the Chameleon included fingerprint and voice activated security, a seat which turns into a bed and a ‘homework reminder’ service to avoid detentions! Other innovative ideas generated by students included vehicles run on salt water, hydrogen, vegetable oil, carbon dioxide and even hamsters!
Jeremy Nicholls, Headteacher of Litcham High School commented “we are delighted to have been asked to participate in such an innovative and creative pilot, which adds so much value to the Science specialism that we have at Litcham High School. We were particularly attracted by the environmental theme; green issues are not only a huge global priority but are also filtering into the national curriculum. All of the students had a very challenging, but enjoyable day.”
Paul Claussen, Executive Member for Commercial Operations at Breckland Council said “we know that there is a massive shortage of engineering skills locally and not enough young people are coming through into the industry, despite being one of high growth sectors in Norfolk. We have developed this initiative to both enthuse students about how exciting engineering can be, but also with strong links to the national curriculum.” Following the successful pilot, it is hoped that the project can now be rolled out to other High Schools in Breckland, who are invited to contact Mark Stead at the REV project on 01842 756598, for further information or to express an interest in running the event at their school. The REV project is also keen to hear from any businesses in Norfolk who may be interested in getting involved in delivering future events within local schools.