Family Engineering a great success for Civic Day

Children of all ages learnt to be the bridge builders of the future at a free Family Engineering event.

The Rochester Bridge Trust hosted a day of educational activities in the Guildhall Museum as part of the City of Rochester Society’s Civic Day celebrations on 18th June.

Rory-Roffensis-and-Langdon-The-Lion

More than 60 children and adults took part, building a range of different bridge types – including arch, beam, cantilever and truss bridges – using materials provided.

Scarlett-5-passport

Trust Education Officer Sharron Mackenzie said: “The event was a great success, with the children really enjoying trying their hands at bridge building. We had lots of positive feedback from the day and look forward to hosting more events to inspire young people to think about a future in civil engineering.”

Sam-12-cantilever

Participants were given an activity passport and collected stickers as they completed each bridge challenge, winning a lollypop once the card was full. There was also the opportunity to enter a free prize draw for a K’Nex bridge building kit.

Kate-Castle,-Sue-Threader,-Riley-11

Activities were hosted by some of the engineers who are responsible for looking after the bridges at Rochester, as well as a student whose education has been supported by the Trust through the Bridge Wardens’ Arkwright Scholars scheme.

Fraser-7-Mars-bar-challenge

Kate Castle of Bridge Engineers Arcadis was one of the volunteers. She said: “It was fun to be able to share my enthusiasm for civil engineering with the many children and adults who visited my table, where they used wooden blocks to learn about arch bridges.

“Giving children the opportunity to try things for themselves helps to engage them and lets them discover how interesting bridge building can be. It’s great to think I might have helped inspire a future generation of civil engineers.”

Engineering education mascot Langdon the Lion was also at the event, greeting families and posing for photographs. He was joined by Rochester Cathedral’s Rory Roffensis, the dragon mascot linked with the Textus Roffensis, a copy of which was on display at the event.

See more pictures from the event here.

Share this story

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print