Sligo Education Centre

First Years Experience Engineering First hand!
On Monday 8 February , the start of Engineers Week 2010, 21 first year pupils had the chance to try their hand at a number of engineering challenges in Sligo Education centre. The event organised by Sligo Education Centre in collaboration with Engineering Ireland aimed to create a positive awareness of engineering and spark enthusiasm about it as a great career choice.
The pupils from the Mercy, Ursuline and Summerhill Colleges worked in teams on problem solving challenges which incorporated practical engineering aspects. In the first challenge the teams were given a project brief to design and construct model wind turbines using K’NEX kits. Each team nominated a project Manager, Design Engineer and Construction teams and worked to include specific features such as motors and against real constraints such as time and cost. All teams managed to construct model turbines that worked and met project brief requirements. The winning team was chosen based on the effectiveness of their turbine, their ability to work together as a team and the cost of the finished product.
The second challenge was a fun activity where teams were required to construct a craft that would protect an egg from breaking when dropped from a height. However the only material available to the teams were sheets of paper, post it motes, paper clips, sellotape and rubber bands. The students used great ingenuity to produce an amazing range of crafts from elaborate parachutes to crumple zones .The challenge culminated with each team dropping their craft from a first floor balcony in the Centre. Surprisingly many eggs landed unbroken! The winning team was chosen based on the least quantity of pieces used in their craft. Prices were given by Sligo Education Centre to the winning teams.
Mary Hough, the Director of Sligo Education Centre said the workshop was a tremendous success. This was due to no small part to the interactive , practical way in which the pupils were engaged. It allowed the pupils to exercise fundamental engineering skills in a creative and fun way. The evaluations which the pupils gave back were extremely positive with one pupil saying she would definitely now think of Engineering as a career. Sligo Education Centre is very grateful to Engineers Ireland Northwest, the Creative Design Department, IT Sligo and LotusWorks as well as the participating schools for making this event such a success and looks forward to building on this event in the future.