Construct Our Future
Girls recently took part in a workshop with Laing O’Rourke titled ‘Construct Our Future’ to explore aspect of engineering, architecture and the building industry.
The Year 8 and 9 pupils were lucky enough to have a number of professionals visit and explain how things work across the breath of services their company offers.
Firstly, pupils were involved in a few warm up games, brushing up their knowledge of vocabulary used in the construction industry and certain systems which are used within building.
Then the girls took part in a task titled ‘The Construction Game’, the aim of which was to plan and design a way of getting from one building to another based on a real project which Laing O’Rourke is soon to embark on.
The project had a number of obstacles based on plans of the site which had to be expertly included or avoided.
The game started with a selection of a number of things which related to their final build including; structural frame, cladding, landscaping, method, internal finishes and the method of construction.
In the same way that ‘top trumps’ works, their choices came with a score which evaluated the quality of the final product eg Sustainability, Safety, cost etc.
Finally each group had to present their ideas along with a plan and a cross-section diagram.
The groups produced incredibly well thought out decisions and each team had a unique outcome.
The most amazing thing was that upon the reveal of the final design by the professionals, most groups had actually made a number of choices which aligned with what was being built in the real world.
Mr Gerallt Skym said: “We were so impressed by all of the groups. They all chose a skywalk, like the final design, they all chose a wooden structure like the final design and they all showed a great competency in their decision making overall.
“I’d like to thank the professionals from Laing O’Rourke for coming in and giving our girls a taste of what it’s like to work in the industry.”
