FIBE2 Cohort 2 students Douglas Morley and Benjamin Boys spearheaded an Engineering Day Outreach at St. Margaret's Preparatory School. The pupils at the school were introduced to what it was like to be an engineer and what environmental challenges engineers of the future would be facing. They were then put into teams and challenged to design and engineer their own suspension bridges based on the engineering knowledge they had gained. The children clearly had a lot of fun judging from their huge smiles and impressed Doug and Ben with their ingenious engineering designs on their own suspension bridges by just using everyday items like strings, cardboard, sticks and strawberry laces. Doug and Ben then assessed the engineering designs and the teams were awarded prizes for their creativity and engineering acuity. Check out the St. Margaret Preparatory School website on the event: https://www.stmargaretsprep.com/engineering-day/Credit for all photos go to the St Margaret's Preparatory School
Doug and Ben thoroughly enjoyed the Outreach event and the opportunity to inspire the children about Engineering. Here are a couple of quotes and their thoughts on the Outreach:
"'The St. Margaret’s students were fantastic. Pupils tackled the bridge building challenge with true creativity and resourcefulness — hunting down the best sticks for ground anchors... fortifying their porridge foundations with extra soil. To see such enthusiasm for engineering was refreshing and should give us hope for the future. It was great to step away from the everyday to find new inspiration, and with any luck, have helped to showcase our exciting profession to future generations."
- Douglas Morley, MRes + PhD Student
"The children were engrossed in building their bridges out of string, strawberry laces, cardboard and tape. We were thinking together about what hazards our bridges will have to stand up to in the future, and building them accordingly. We had to solve problems such as balancing out the forces on the pylons so that they did not fall in on themselves and making sure the road was suspended from the secondary cables (whilst avoiding the temptation to eat them). Prizes were awarded to the children on criteria of good team work, efficient use of materials, creativity in the design, as well as the length, height and maximum load of their structures. The children asked lots of great questions about what it is like to work as an Engineer, and the different types of Engineering we study here at CUED."
- Benjamin Boys, MRes + PhD student