More than 150 students learnt about the importance of civil engineering and took part in bridge building challenges during the opening week of a new university technical college.
The Rochester Bridge Trust’s official engineers, Hyder (now Arcadis), met the new intake at Medway UTC at the start of September.
Raisa Ehsan, an engineer from Hyder, explained: “Our sessions began with a talk about civil engineering, helping the students to understand how integral the profession is to every part of civilisation, from the buildings we live in, the journeys we make and the water we drink – civil engineering has a role in all.”
The students then broke into teams for a bridge building challenge, during which each group worked with a limited number of materials to create a strong, stable crossing. These were then judged according to how much weight they could hold as well as the overall design.
Engineer Kate Castle added: “It was great to meet the students and challenge them to think about the engineering principles behind bridge building. In all we held four sessions, with the overall strongest bridges carrying up to 31.5kg – quite an achievement.”
Medway UTC is a new type of secondary school, where students study towards their GCSEs and A-levels alongside the technical specialisms of engineering, construction and design.
See medwayutc.co.uk for further information.
For a photo gallery of the activities see the Facebook gallery here