In the third week of October 2014 the bridge activity was hosted in Whitley Bay High School. As always, it was visible how the students were becoming interested and excited about the activity as they saw the impressive size of the bridge and learned more about the importance of the civil engineering profession and the potential future employment opportunities from the preliminary talk. Understanding of the duties and responsibilities of civil engineers, the benefits of the job and the requirements that engineers have to satisfy to be competent and successful is encouraged by providing examples of well-known engineering projects and structures and the systems that have become an essential part of the civilised world. Our expert demonstrators often discuss the projects that they have worked on too! The activity is also a unique opportunity for the students to ask a wide range of questions related to the possible career paths, best engineering courses and how prepare for them.
The students in Whitley Bay High School worked excellently and can really be proud about the way they worked together in teams. Effective team work is one of the main requirements of the exercise given that each of the sessions, including the presentations, construction and deconstruction, normally takes around around 75 min.