Year 9 STEM

This week our Year 9 STEM students travelled to QUT for a biomechanics workshop, run by third and fourth year engineering students. Students learnt about what engineers do, the concepts related to building a mechanical prosthetic arm such as degrees of freedom, newtons, torque and member sections and also have the opportunity to build their own mechanical arm.

Students worked in teams of four to build a mechanical prosthetic arm to respond to a specific task that the students developed. In the final session, they created a pitch to sell their ideas to the engineering students. Ideas included a chocolate dipping arm for a confectionery company, a demolition robot and a Yahtzee dice rolling machine. This was an important aspect in the workshop as Engineering students emphasised that as they often worked with complex machines and concepts, they needed to be able to articulate their ideas to many different people who may not have the expertise they have.

Mr Wes Warner, Head of Innovation, Entrepreneurialism and Business