On October the 10th, 6 year 9 girls along with Mrs Holland and Mr Dagg headed off to Canterbury College to take part in the Amey Challenge Cup. This is the 3rd year of the competition which aims to encourage female students to think about careers in the engineering sector. Royal Harbour Academy has entered all 3 years and we were keen to continue our winning streak.
After introductions, the task and rules were explained to the teams. They had to design and build a scale model of a bridge to replace one that collapsed during flooding. 2 graduate civil engineers were assigned to our team to support, answer questions and offer advice. They also received help from current engineering students at the college including ex RHA students.
The girls were keen to get started and had soon begun to build their new bridge. They worked really well together and were able to adapt the design of the bridge when it became clear that the first design wouldn’t work as expected.
Our young engineers were an absolute credit to themselves and the school, exhibiting numerous IB characteristics. The biggest challenge was to present the finished product to the other teams and a panel of judges which included the Mayor of Margate. Whilst this was clearly nerve racking, the girls were able to work collaboratively and support each other in delivering the presentation.
Although they didn’t win (that honour went to Sheppey Academy), Team RHA were commended on their resilience and adaptability and everyone came away with a very cool goody bag. On return to school, one student explained that it was ‘really tiring but interesting to learn about how bridges are designed’. Another stated that she ‘hadn’t considered going to college or university but it seems really cool now’.
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