20 Jun 2019
On Tuesday 18th June, West Wyalong High School had a group of students and Mrs Clarke travel to Wagga to participate in the ‘Discover Engineering Forum’. The Forum was based around students in year 7-10 interested in learning about engineering as a career choice.
The forum was held at Kooringal High School and the numbers were limited to 100 so the students had plenty of opportunity to ask questions and get involved!
Discover Engineering Day included activities aimed at giving high school students a taste of skills required for the engineering profession as well as guest speakers from university students and engineers.
The highlight of the day for the students were the three challenges that they all got to participate in. They were split up into small groups to complete these challenges.
The paper tower challenge was aimed towards building a paper tower which is 20cm tall, as light as possible and supports at least 2.5kg. The results go as follows:
Rowan, Chayce, Zach, Sarah- 40g of paper, supported 10kg.
Piper, Jedi, Briella, Rhiana- 45g of paper, supported 10kg.
Laura, Bronte, Bec & Georgia- 87g of paper, supported 10kg.
All our students worked really well, however the winning group held 10kg up with only 20g of paper.
The crash barrier challenge involved creating a barrier to stop a remote control car as quickly as possible and before it hits the end of the road.
The third challenge was all about building a prosthetic leg for below the knee using a sponge, a plunger, rope, pipe and anything on their person in 25 minutes- they then had to race 10 metres.
Rowan, Chayce, Zach & Sarah- Zach was disqualified for breaking the plunger
Piper, Jedi, Briella & Rhiana- Piper was disqualified for hopping
Laura, Bronte, Bec & Georgia- Bec was disqualified for the prosthetic limb coming off and using an ‘amputated foot’.
Questions that were answered on the day include;
Why be an engineer?
What do engineers do?
How do you become an engineer?
This was an extremely beneficial event to attend and our students found it particularly engaging and worthwhile!
We have uploaded a gallery with all of the photos!