Extra-curricular

Sentinus

Sentinus

Drying Clothes

Gold Crest Award Winners

This year the Sentinus R&D Engineering Team was made up of Katie Ashe, Natalie Cavanagh, Shannon Fisher and Emma Jamison.

Local company Whale tasked us to create a clothes drying system for caravan users that had to be able to work in the limited space they have available as well as being able to connect to the caravan’s central heating system using Whale’s heating connection.

This led us to have a series of discussions on the main problems we faced and to come up many ideas while working alongside the company and engaging with their specialists who gave us input and advice to help us get to our final solution. This helped us learn vital skills and provided us with an insight into how a professional company works. We also got a real workshop experience in January at Ulster University where we were able to build our product with the help of the staff on hand there.

Our solution to this problem was the Dry House: a foldable drying rack with changeable sizes. allowing it to easily be folded away and stored. The rail was made of plastic and would be covered with a bag to retain the heat and dry the clothes. We strategically placed the product in the shower of the caravan for ease of use and so all the water from the clothes wouldn’t leak into the living area.

Overall, we are proud that our hard work as a team paid off by receiving the Sentinus Gold Crest award, the highest engineering award awarded to secondary school pupils, at the Sentinus Team R&D Celebration Day in April. We could not have achieved such wonderful success without Whale’s supervising engineer Jim Sargent and our teacher, and personal chauffeur, Mr. Driscoll.

Tor Bank Sentinus

Sentinus

Year 11 Sentinus Science and Engineering Day at Tor Bank School

My Tor Bank experience was absolutely fantastic. I had a lot of fun and the people were so nice and welcoming. We joined in lots of different and exciting activities such as making rockets. I thought this was the best contraptions ever, especially when they were launched and you could see everyone was very proud of how high they went. Some went higher than the school buildings!

We also made battery-powered cars that we got to race and we made solar-powered fans as well.

My favourite part of the day at Tor Bank was at the beginning. We all sat around a table in the Sixth Form web café with the Head Boy and other Tor Bank students and we all started singing!

I hope I get to go back to Tor Bank in Sixth Form. I’m sure I would have an amazing time, just like I did in Year 11.

Year 8 Sentinus March 2020
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