On Wednesday the 27th February almost 60 students from across years 8-11 took part in a QUESTACON Smart Skills workshop.

Helen and Erin-Jane from QUESTACON took the students through a design thinking process to create simple designs that would either sink, hover, stick or fly in a vertical wind tunnel. The students used a wind tunnel app on a tablet device as their first trial. They quickly discovered which shapes provided lift and then took to the paper to make and trial as many designs as possible. The year 8 group created more than 90 designs, not bad for the smallest group of the day!

Students were then given the chance to refine their designs, bring in a few more simple (tissues, alfoil, paperclips) materials then trial these in the wind tunnels, aiming for a hover of at least 6 seconds.

All students were highly engaged in the hands-on activity and discovered new knowledge about aerodynamics, flight, indoor skydiving, and design thinking.

The Questacon staff were very impressed with the work our staff are doing in Innovation here at Victor Harbor High School in support of our student learning opportunities.