Engineering Competition
‘’Vrienden van Techniek Maas en Waal‘’ organised Engineering Competition Maas & Waal for the first time this school year and we were delighted to participate.
Getting young people excited about engineering; that was the aim of Engineering Competition Maas & Waal. And they succeeded! Groups 7 and 8 of various primary schools in Maas & Waal enthusiastically threw themselves into a piece of work with the theme ‘Vertical Transport’.
The idea
One of the members of ‘Vrienden van Techniek Maas en Waal’ is chairman of Engineering Competition Rivierengebied and in that region this has been a resounding success for many years. The time has come to take this up in our region as well. Fortunately, the board of Engineering Competition Rivierengebied was enthusiastic and therefore helped Vrienden van Techniek tremendously by sharing all their information with them.
Theme
Since ‘on the other side of the Waal’ the theme had already been decided, we from Vrienden van Techniek kept the same theme, namely ‘Vertical Transport’. Each participating class was divided into groups of 4-5 pupils. First, they set to work on brainstorming, drawing and making mind maps.
Material and tools
Each group was given a starter kit. This starter kit consisted of a base plate on which to make the workpiece and, among other things, some extra wood, electrical pipe and wire, screws and an electric motor. Furthermore, pupils were allowed to add all sorts of things to this such as wood, fabric, papier-mâché, iron wire, polyurethane foam and so on. A toolbox was provided for those schools that had no or insufficient tools.
Getting started
After drawing, the mind map and receiving all the materials, the classes could get started! They had several weeks to work on the project and were assisted by school visitors in addition to their teachers. All of them people with a technical background or experience in education. How enthusiastic everyone was! In a logbook, in addition to the drawings, the children also kept a reflection report on their collaboration, among other things.
Final event
Of course, an engineering competition also includes an award ceremony. First, all groups handed in their pieces of work at the PAX in Druten. Then the professional jury and the youth jury had time to judge all 74 projects. On Tuesday 4 June it was finally time for THE final event with an award ceremony! This day was presented by none other than Rachel Rosier (known from TV program Checkpoint). There was an obstacle course, a quiz and the children could eat a frankfurters sandwich. As many as 365 children were present and in the end the Tweestroom from Altforst received the main prize.
