George Peryer

This was my first year of A levels in one model. I decided that I would design a device to lower the childhood obesity levels as at that time this was a big issue in the news. I began by looking at previous solutions and realised early on that the main solution would be led by schools getting children interested from an early age which would then be helped with literature for children and parents. However this would not get me marks on a product design course, so I had to try innovate a product that would encourage children to want to exercise and get children outside. After months of ideas and development I finally came up with a concept for monopoly where children earn the right to move around the board depending on the amount of exercise they do each day. The model itself took around 2 months in total as there were so many stages to achieve in school with the little time we were given each week. This project gave me so many skills which I have been able use throughout the rest of my life, such as using the milling machine, lathe, vinyl cutter, numerous finishing techniques and so much patience.

I began this project by trying to solve the problem of food waste and though weeks of research found that the main contributor is fruit. At the time around 1/3 of fruit was wasted after it was left out for too long.

I saw a few solutions to the problem instantly; either eat the food quicker, buy less in the first place or find a way to make the fruit last the week. Being that I had no real control over the first two I concentrated on ways to elongate the life of the fruit.

After lots of designs and development I came up with a motorised fruit bowl. With essentially two bowls stuck one in side the other to create an air gap between the two I could pump air into this point and then out through holes located in the inner bowl so the fruit would get the air movement needed to prolong the fruit's life.

This took far longer than anticipated, mainly due to the lack of equipment for such a task. I needed a far bigger vacuum former so to address this I had to make my own press former instead. To make it and then get it working took around a month, with several of the bowls splitting due to incorrect temperatures and the wrong forces applied.

Eventually I had two bowls of the right size. All that was left was to join them, create a base, make the circuit board, house the components and drill the holes in a regular pattern.

I did complete it in time despite the extra work which I had not anticipated and am still thrilled with what I achieved at that time.