Engineering Our Way

We love to see our past pupils returning to encourage our present pupils along their educational journey.  We're also working hard to win a Discover Science and Maths award. So, past pupil, Kevin Duffy arrived on our doorstep today to help us with both objectives.

A final year engineering student in UCD, he was delighted to talk to the boys in Fifth and Sixth class about engineering in our environment. Showing pictures of the Boyne Viaduct, The Mary McAleese Bridge, the Pyramids and the Eiffel Tower, he went on to discuss the best ways to make strong structures. 

This led nicely into a group experiment. The boys broke into teams and had to create a strong structure from spaghetti and marshmallows. There were two rules: don`t break the spaghetti and don`t eat the marshmallows! 

Of course, there was a lot of negotiation and discussion involved in the merits or otherwise of certain structures. It was all about engineering, about teamwork and about fun!

Thanks, Kevin!