The engineers of tomorrow had their abilities tested when they took part in a bridge building challenge during the first week of term.
Year 10 students at Medway UTC learnt about civil engineering and the importance of bridges when a team from the Rochester Bridge Trust visited them at their new college.
The 14 to 15-year-olds met three of the Trust’s official bridge engineers from Arcadis, who gave a talk about routes into engineering and shared some of their experiences in the field. Trust Education Officer Aileen White and Royal Engineers Museum Education Officer Amber Cottee were also on hand to answer questions and supervise activities, with four teachers and a very helpful senior technician from the college.
Tim Belcher-Whyte of Arcadis said: “We all remember what it’s like to be planning for a future career: exciting, nerve-wracking, challenging and more. To be able to meet these future civil engineers and help them along their way is a great opportunity. It’s also very rewarding to see how well they apply themselves to their tasks, the future of civil engineering is in good hands.”
As part of the visit students were split into teams of four and challenged to build the strongest bridge spanning a set distance, using limited materials. The winning team was David, Kai, Charlie and Alice, who were appropriately called The Bridge Builders. Their structure held an impressive 25kg.
Aileen White of the Rochester Bridge Trust added: “Our bridge building activities are a fun, educational way to introduce children and young people of all ages to the breadth of civil engineering and it was great to see these students really applying themselves to the challenge they were given.”
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