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Desert Island Survivors

15 December 2021

Last week was Year 8 project week in Science where the girls had to survive being stranded on a desert island. In order to do this the girls needed to complete a series of three challenges using their biology, chemistry and physics skills: parachuting down a steep cliff to the beach to escape, making clean water to drink and foraging for food, medicine and shelter …. and on top of that, they had to avoid being eaten by bears!

Task 1 - Parachutes
To escape the island you need to get to the beach. But there’s a problem, this means you will need to get down a high, sheer cliff that is too crumbly to climb. One of your party suggests that you could use some of the material you have with you to build parachutes so that you can get down. However, the material is also needed for other things like keeping you warm and possibly to make a sail for your escape raft. So, you will need to design the most effective parachute using the least possible material.

Task 2 - Fresh Water
Dirty water can cause a host of problems in terms of diseases; cholera, typhoid, diphtheria and hepatitis. Currently, 785 million people don’t have access to clean water, and diarrhoea caused by dirty water kills a child under 5 years old every 2 minutes. In order to survive on the island you need to ensure that the water you drink has been purified. The current condition of the water on the island is filthy. In order to complete this task you will need to use your knowledge of filtration and distillation.

Task 3 - Hunter Gathering
Your task is to set up a sustainable community on the island. You need to take into account plants that will offer nutrition, health benefits and help with shelter or other reasons why to they might benefit the community. Choose 10 plants out of the ones available on the list and state why you are keeping the plant for food, medicine or structure and a reason why this is a good choice.

Teams were awarded points at each stage and the survivors were the team who scored the most. All pupils performed well, showing initiative, leadership and demonstrating impressive teamwork. Congratulations to all of our winners, listed by their team names below.

In Form 8B, three teams were joint winners:

The Least Likely to Survive - Eva, Elsie, Maggie, Maya
Hine - Iffy, Niamh, Harleen, Ester
Einstein’s Children - Alyzah, Neha, Zoe and Lily

In Form 8L:

The Serpents - Hawwa and Lana

In Form 8RM, two teams were joint winners:

Pink Fluffy Unicorns - Humnah, Senudi, Holly and Riya
Evan’s Unicorns - Aisha, Tinotenda, Imaani

In Form 8SM:

The Survivors - Eleena, Mohini, Safa, Aleeza

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