Stories
Questions overheard, things built, days as they happened.
18 stories
“How did we decide that one day equals 24 hours? Why not 100, or any other number?”
“How does Qwen make money if they're giving the model away for free?”
“Why doesn't a building simply explode the moment a lightning bolt hits the lightning rod?”
“How hard is it to make a client trust you?”
“Why should water be free?”
“If we weren't spaghettified, what would we find inside a black hole?”
“Have you ever thought that stronger AIs could use information from weaker AIs about us, and slowly take control?”
“What do you do when an AI keeps failing to fix the same thing and wastes all your tokens?”
“How do electrons know the shortest path in a circuit?”
“What if the Monty Hall problem had 100 doors — what's the optimal algorithm to win?”
“Most people are doing engineering or robotics — but what about the medical field?”
“Why are wires thinner than resistors?”
Each student built a submarine from PVC pipe with ballast tanks, inflate/deflate pumps, thrusters and a wired remote, sealing leaks through repeated pressure and water tests. By 28 May all but one were complete.
Dive Deep: Build Your Own Submarine · May 2026 · See the wall
One finished submarine was fully tested in the water: inflation, deflation and all three thrusters worked. It was the first in the class to be finished.
Dive Deep: Build Your Own Submarine · May 2026 · See the wall
A tube that grows out long and straight when inflated and retracts when it isn't. Its builder added a fourth air module for reach, and by the defence day it steered under code they wrote themselves.
Soft Robotics · June 2026 · See the wall
Students built speakers from coils, magnets and diaphragms, then iterated. One got the loudest sound by re-seating the coil, a big paper-spring cone gave deeper bass, and fixing the magnet to a table made the table resonate.
Physics of Sound · May 2026 · See the wall
Teams built bridges from paper straws and folded A4 sheets and tested them with weights. One team's design, planned by a single student, carried more than 10 kg.
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out · May 2026 · See the wall
Each student designed a building for a shared site: a library, spa, gym, dance studio, cinema and more. They measured real rooms, drew ground and first-floor plans and built models, skipping breaks to finish.
Architecture · May 2026 · See the wall
So — is it yours?
You've seen what we see across a summer. The useful next step is smaller: does any of it describe the child in your house?
