Third Year STEAM and Self-Defence Day

Third Year students enjoyed a day of hands-on activities on the theme of bridges at the end of their second exam week, as part of our STEAM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics), which helps link pupils’ academic studies their wider applications. They completed a series of challenges set by the Science, Art, Design and Technology and Maths Departments designed to stretch their intellectual, creative and team working abilities and, on the same day, were given valuable instruction in self-defence. 

It was a particular pleasure to welcome our German exchange students, who made a notable contribution to their teams. The pupils showed their creative side by making some beautiful architectural models and their engineering and team working skills were challenged when building and testing their own bridges. 

The DT department’s competition for the strongest bridge was won by a team from Drake (Lila, Theo, exchange student Florian, Rosie, Will, Amber and George). Top prize for the architectural models went to Rocco and Alex, closely followed by Matthew, Sam and Felix, all of whom produced stunning models of their bridge designs. 

The Third Years also enjoyed exploring the maths behind networks of bridges and investigating resonance as a cause of bridge failure. A final competitive element was provided by the challenge of creating a bridge that would hold itself together using only its own weight and the friction between the planks provided. The solution, apparently originally designed by Leonardo DaVinci, can only be implemented with creativity and excellent teamwork. A number of teams really impressed in both these areas, battling against time to complete the task. The winners, by a margin of 17cm, were from Collingwood (Katie, Jayden, Ella, Thomas, George and exchange student Emilia), producing a bridge spanning an impressive 5.80m!

Flickr album: Third Year STEAM & Self-Defence Day, June 2024 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin