Otterbourne Church of England
Primary School
With God's love, all are encouraged to thrive
TRUST
RESPECT
DETERMINATION
TRUST
RESPECT
DETERMINATION
TRUST
RESPECT
Bridges4Schools 2022
We were lucky to welcome engineers from Mott McDonald and Bam Nuttall in to our school so the children could take part in two engineering projects. The children absolutely loved the challenges and had so many questions that we ran out of time!
Task 1: Design a bridge
Creativity and logic were put to the test in the K’NEX bridge challenge. K’NEX are construction toys that fit together similarly to Lego.
The Bridges4Schools team tasked the pupils with designing and constructing a bridge out of K’NEX to support as heavy a weight as possible.
The pupils were encouraged to work together as a team – a requirement for any successful engineering project!
Task 2: Build a bridge
After the K’NEX classroom activity, students moved into the main hall where they found a 13-meter-long disassembled bridge.
Each student suited up in safety gear, including high visibility vests, hard hats and gloves.
After students were assigned roles, they worked together to construct the bridge and make it safe and secure.
“My favourite part was connecting the wires. We’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m having so much fun” said Violet!
Each pupil got the chance to test their work and walk across the bridge before helping to deconstruct it again. After they completed the programme, every student received a Certificate of Achievement!
This is something that we are hoping to take part in every year.
