Mary Immaculate College, Engineers Ireland, Limerick City & Co Council and Explore Engineering all come together for Engineers Week 2024
As Engineers Week 2024 comes to an end we want to say well done to all the teachers and pupils that attended the CRAFT Maker Space this week. The children engineered rollercoasters and floating houses using the Engineering Design Process framework and were really engaged in the activities. They were ably directed by our 3rd year B.Ed. students who were on hand to promote the pupils' skills including problem solving and critical thinking and learning science about materials and maths concepts about distance and angles.
On Wednesday we were joined by engineers Niamh Wilson and Catriona Gallagher from Limerick City and County Council who worked with two schools on using maps of Limerick, to measure three possible routes to a school and to decide which one they would recommend the families to use. Afterwards, they were put into teams and given a limited set of resources, and were challenged to design and build a tallest tower they could. The winners had built a structure over a meter tall - impressive!
The height theme continued on Thursday using Piks and Marble Run materials, but the design challenge involved including a quirky mathematical element talso. We got to see really great ideas come out like right angle turns and even triangle-abouts!
Explore Engineering Showcase
Thursday evening was the annual Explore Engineering Showcase event which this year was held in Shannon Airport. We were delighted to host a CRAFT Maker Space stand there and were inundated with requests from every age group to try out our engineering challenges. While the children were very confident in trying them out, the adults needed a little more persuading, but they got their in the end! For four hours, we had great fun and engagement - it was a resounded success.
Engineering Resources
We are delighted to support Engineers Ireland who always actively encourage people, organisations and schools to immerse themselves in the creativity and knowledge of engineering skills. The aim is to inform generations to the different prospects and opportunities that comes with pursuing a career in engineering.
Engineers Ireland have plenty of resources available for everyone to do. See the Engineers Ireland site here
Competition
To finish up Engineer's Week, we have sets of engineering resources available to post out to the first 30 schools who correctly answer the following questions
- What building has the tallest spire in Ireland?
- How tall is that spire?
Use the contact form to send in your answers with your name, school name, class level and contact details, and enjoy a browse around our website too.
Good luck!
