Attainment target 1 in the national curriculum for science contains at the highest two levels the requirement for an extended investigation. This is a great delight to those of us who have been arguing for years that investigative modular projects (IMPS) can and should be part of compulsory science. One cheer for the national curriculum! If more time and funding are directed towards the development of appropriate extended projects for schools to use, we shall raise two cheers! This article describes an investigative modular project which taxed the ingenuity of a small team of 15/16 year olds over a period of some 12 months (at lunch times). It was funded by the Standing Conference on School Science and Technology through the Young Engineers Club Scheme.