DT Genius

Year 8 Design and Technology scholar, Rafe, has been busy during lockdown creating an impressive piece of engineering. His automated plant watering system keeps six plants healthy with regular watering without Rafe having to lift more than a phone!

Inspiration was born out of frustration for Rafe as he has a multitude of plants in his room many of which are hard to access and therefore get knocked over should he try to water them in the traditional fashion.

“I did some research to see what existed but I designed my own system with pumps and pipes and used wifi plugs which link to an app on my phone so I can use Siri voice commands to make it work.” Rafe explained. “One problem was for one plant I had to get about 100ml of water to come out in one minute, so I used a protractor to measure the correct angle to bend the pipe. It took a lot of adjustments to get it to work correctly. For some of my smaller plants where I had less space to put in a bend, I used a smaller pipe and zip ties to restrict the water flow. “

We are pleased to report that to date so far none of the plants have died and that buoyed by the success of his project, Rafe is now considering the possibilities for the invention of a hydraulic door lock, using the same kind of wifi plugs.

In recognition of his engineering talents, Rafe was recently awarded a Design and Technology (DT) scholarship commencing this coming September. DT is a core subject within the Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Maths (STEAM) curriculum which is a real strength of the School. Rafe reflected “I was very happy being awarded a DT scholarship because I really like DT and I’m always making things. For example, in the last year and a half I have made: a solid-state rocket thruster, an electrical arc generator and I have been making a miniature ballista in the DT hobby in Year 7 and at my house.”

Head of DT, Mark Smith commented, “I remember being so impressed with Rafe as a Year 7 student and by his engineering drawing for a sports bag trolley that he proceeded to make in STEAM Design & Build. I encouraged him to apply for a DT scholarship and was so delighted to hear that he was successful in his application. He is one of the most gifted students in terms of their engineering understanding that I have ever met. His automatic plant watering system that is operated through Siri really reinforced this opinion!”

The School is celebrating further STEAM success this week as Sixth Former, Annie, has this week been offered a place to read Engineering at Christ’s College, Cambridge next year.