Gold Crest award success

In January a team of Sibford Students began a project to build a fusor, nicknamed “Star in a Jar”, a device capable of creating and containing a plasma. The design, developed by the team, used electrostatic fields to contain a plasma in a vacuum.

The Aim of the project was to design, build and test the fusor in order to demonstrate nuclear fusion, a process that is currently being researched as a solution to the energy crisis.

The fusor was designed with plans to be presented at the Cambridge science fair in March, but this was cancelled due to COVID-19. Although the event was cancelled the students continued the project and, after months of construction and research, the team submitted the project for a CREST Award and achieved the Gold Award in July.

The team worked together on every element of the project from the design and research to construction. Even during lockdown, the team was able to work together to research the field copiously, from theoretical physics to the history of the device. The main theme considered was the climate crisis, and how nuclear fusion could be a solution to this by providing clean energy.

Flickr album: CREST award 2020 | Height: auto | Theme: Default