A hands-on engineering workshop, called Bridges to Schools, kicked off for the first time in the South Island with a visit to the school, coupled with a challenge – to work in teams to construct a 13-metre long bridge.
The workshop was created by the Institution of Civil Engineers, in collaboration with Fletcher Living, to help inspire young people into civil engineering.
Pupils are supervised and work together to build the finished product, a to-scale version of a real suspension bridge.
ICE member Ruth Bullen said the exercise gave the pupils an insight into what civil engineers do.
“We help give these kids some ideas of what it’s all about to hopefully inspire the next generation of civil engineers,” she said.
“There’s definitely a few that have put their hands up. We like to start them young and excite them to see where they can go in the future,” Bullen said.
Fletcher Living community and stakeholder manager Mark Doyle said there are plans to build more kitsets so the workshop can be extended into more schools more often.
“The real joy and our measure of success is just to see the joy on the kids’ faces,” he said.
“We’re not just doing it because we want to find future engineers. For us it’s just as much about the experience and the fun that the kids have.”
A roughly even number of girls and boys took part in the exercise.
They all asked great questions, said Doyle, especially the girls. And, for the record the second group finished first, but only by about five minutes, Doyle said.
Both came in in under an hour.
-By Tony Simons
