On Monday 23^rd May, 16 students from Science Club attended a much-anticipated celebration event for the Sustainable Transport Challenge at the University of the West of England’s School of Engineering.

Inspired by the Atlantic Challenge undertaken by The Bristol Gulls, students had spent several months researching and designing an eco-friendly, sustainable vehicle to travel a 1,000 mile journey. They had also planned the route as well as meals and clothing that would be fit for purpose, and last the entire journey.

On arrival to UWE, the group were given an inspirational talk by Bristol Gulls crew member Sarah, about the importance of sustainable vehicles and the impact of rubbish going into the ocean.

Next up were the presentations, each group was given a table to show their display boards and students and teachers from other schools walked around and asked them questions about their designs. The students did an amazing job at answering questions from other schools and engineers about their designs.

This was followed up with a journey through time in the ‘Explorer Dome’, an inflatable igloo with a 360^o visual tour looking at how human activity has impacted the temperature and CO2 levels of the planet.

In the final session of the day, students designed and built eco-friendly ways to cross the river in Bristol, on a format they were very familiar with – Minecraft! Designs included wind-powered boats and a ‘solar powered water freezing machine’ allowing users to skate across the river.

Overall, a very enjoyable and inspiring day was had by students. We are so proud of the work they put into their projects to make this trip possible.