Engineers week showcase

Post date: Mar 08, 2018 11:39:28 PM

We have been very busy in Killeigh NS celebrating Engineers week and lots of the classes have undertaken engineering challenges. Today we gathered in our school hall for our engineer week showcase where the boys and girls got to show off their work. 

Pupils from Ms Moriaritys class and Ms Dunnes class talked about building structures from spaghetti and marshmallows and they also gave us some useful hints on bridge building.

Next up, it was the turn of the boys and girls of Ms McElduffs 5th class who made some very impressive catapults. They told the children what materials they had used in construction and how the catapults worked.  Inspiration came from a number of sources including a roman catapult!  We were also given a demonstration of a catapult that launched a marble high up into the air. As part of the engineering process the boys and girls had to think about what improvements they would like to make to their product and one of the pupils told the crowd that he would like to improve his by extending the range of his catapult. It was wonderful to see the children engage with the engineering process so much.

The boys and girls of Mr Breslins 5th class have spent the last week designing and making electronic games and it was their turn next to demonstrate how each one worked and how they were constructed.

6th class boys and girls took on the challenge of making their own pin ball machines. They demonstrated their games and explained 

how they had constructed each machine. From looking at the demonstration of each mechanism it was obvious how much thought and

hard work had gone into each machine.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was the presentation by 4th class who had taken on the egg drop challenge. They had to design a system that would protect an egg from breaking when t was dropped from a height. After they had described their solutions they got the chance to demonstrate that their devices worked. Every group got a big cheer as egg after egg made it safely to the ground. (I hope to post more picture or videos of this soon)

It was a very enjoyable occasion and many thanks go to our teachers and the pupils for all their hard work.