SSV Students Win COBIS Design & Technology Competition

The British School in The Netherlands (BSN) is delighted to share that a group of five Senior School Voorschoten (SSV) students recently won the COBIS (Council of British International Schools) Design and Technology Competition, ‘Reduce through Reuse’. Students were challenged to create new, fully-functioning products out of broken or discarded (electro-mechanical) objects, giving them the opportunity to showcase their creativity and problem-solving skills. The winners were selected by a panel of judges chaired by Ben Lewis, Design Manager at Dyson.

The BSN team ‘De Plattelanders’, SSV students Maren, Rita, Ines, Nicki and Fabian, came first in the competition’s ‘Innovation’ category out of 44 other participating schools. Finding and dismantling an old Dutch bicycle, students were able to re-use all of its parts, along with some old buckets in a grandparents’ shed, to create a pedal-powered mixer entirely from reused materials.

The students on their winning idea and design process:

It all started with a salad spinner! We were going to make a mechanical salad spinner; then, it became a bicycle-powered washing machine. In the end, we decided to make a bicycle-powered cement mixer. The bicycle spins the bucket, which then mixes the cement.

Both Mr Gent and Ms Gulliver [Design Technology Teachers at Senior School Voorschoten] were very supportive of our project. They both helped us whenever we needed it and were really good at letting us be creative and come up with ideas on our own.”

You can see the students’ design in action in the video below:

Congratulations to the winning team! The BSN is incredibly proud of you and your achievement. Special thanks to Mr Gent and Ms Gulliver for supporting the students throughout the process.