Building Bridges in Creative Engineering & Design
Girls have been bringing together a variety of creative skills as they build their own bridges.
Through the year, in both lessons and extracurricular sessions, teachers Mr Gabriel Tansley and Mr Simon Hawkes have tasked girls with designing and building bridges.
Girls were given a set amount of materials and a distance their bridge needed to cover.
The girls begun the process through theory and design, presenting and testing a multitude of maquettes in paper and lolly sticks. Through this testing, the groups were able to refine what they believed to be the strengths and weaknesses of each iteration.
For the final construction, each group was given seven equally sized strips of aluminium to put its ideas into action.
They presented a variety of designs and styles, inspired by both examples in real life and inventions of their own imagination.
Mr Hawkes, Deputy Head, said: “It’s been very interesting to see girls take care over each step of this exercise to refine their designs and then put them to the test. They’ve been able to use a set of tools which are new to many of them including hacksaws, engineer’s squares and more but it’s also given them a chance to combine their maths, art and physics skills. It’s been wonderful to watch (and especially funny when they beg me for more aluminium) and fantastic to see our new CED department used for an exciting task.”
Mr Tansley, Creative Engineering and Design teacher, said: “I’ve enjoyed seeing girls rack their brains to find out the most efficient build. One of the groups managed to make a bridge which was able to withstand loads of over 30kg! Not bad for a few strips of aluminium!
“There have been plenty of highlights, the main one being the moment when their bridges break and the classroom erupts with laughter!”
