Our Design & Technology lead Ms Burke hosts the famous annual Year 8 Upcycling Challenge each year & comments how this is a highlight within the school calendar. Every year each pupil presents their new product, made from plastic waste & shares this with their peers, explaining their making process. This is great practice for aspiring inventors to benefit from collaboration, troubleshooting problems together and creating new solutions. Our course is demanding, taking real everyday problems and creating solutions to benefit human life. Our pupils have a choice to either design and make a product for everyday use within the UK, or they can opt to really challenge their thinking skills through repurposing plastic to benefit others in a low developed country, to assist others sustain a healthy lifestyle.
We like to think we are creating memories, where pupils really enjoy the competitive content and sharing ideas together. It is wonderful to see how pupils respectfully listen and engage in active product design discussion, cultivating an experience similar to working in a collaborative industry design studio. I invite pupils, families, and friends to assist our Year 8 with their ambitious ideas, as this raises further our eco mission to get our community recycling and considering green solutions.
We will share a variety of our AKS pupil talent on our social media platforms after October half-term and announce the finalists, who will be judged by our guest judges.
This competition was launched in September and Year 8 pupils are invited to ensure they have their finished items ready for their lesson in week commencing 4th November 2024.
Good luck!
S Burke