Students in Malmesbury have created a 50-metre ‘crop circle’ of a Dyson Airblade on the school field using GPS navigation and an aerial drone to film the challenge.

The potential future engineers spent an afternoon working with Swindon College lecturer and civil engineer Robert Ashworth on the project.

The idea for the crop circle, which was made out of water-based paint, came about after students visited the college last year.

Maths teacher Sarah Poultney said: “Bob is really enthusiastic and wants to get the children involved in engineering and maths.

“The drone is just brilliant because it can go right down to eye level to the kids and then go up again.”

The groups of Year 10 students also used a time-lapse camera to watch the crop circle take shape over about two hours.

Mark Taylor, of Dyson, said: “Unconventional challenges are fun – it gets young students problem-solving and applying skills in a different way.

“Thinking differently is good for invention.”