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Engineers Without Borders

Business Liaison Association

Wendy Finegan 29 August, 2023 Gifted and Talented Programs

Engineers Without Borders

ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS

"At Bentley Park College two groups of students were able to participate in the workshop run by Engineers Without Borders, a year 7 Aspire and year 9 Aspire class. Both groups contain students that have high academic results in core subjects and who are on an ATAR pathway. The presented workshop, Floating Houses, was chosen by both class teachers as it related to content that students either recently had exposure to or will later this term. Feedback from both students, staff and presenters was that it was a positive, skill building experience that allowed student to link theory and general subject information with real world problems in a humanitarian context – a real opportunity for the Science as a Human Endeavour aspect of the curriculum to be highlighted. Teachers commented that it was great to see student engaging with each other, thinking outside the box and challenging their problem-solving skills. They also noted they would be referring back to this experience at various points over the upcoming semester as there were so many areas where it had great application. The students all enjoyed the experience, particularly the year 7 group who worked really collaboratively on the task, they all had positive comments about being a participant in the workshop and developed a better understanding of how STEM skills can be applied to solve real word problems. Overall the workshop was a very worthwhile opportunity for our students, they were involved collaborative problem solving that they usually wouldn’t be able to do in a regular lesson. Thank you for providing the opportunity for the students at BPC, it is much appreciated."


Kim Wilson (HOD Science)

Bentley Park College
 

 

 

Bentley College Students attending Engineers Without Borders 

 

"Thank you BLA for the opportunity for our small rural/remote school."

 

Tuki Brown 

Principal

Dimbulah State School

Students from Dimbulah State School enjoying the Engineers Without Borders Program

 

" We had a budget of $40 to spend on floating equipment but we had to build a creative and ambitious house and put it to the test. We used floating objects to make floating houses and then trialled them with different weights. The different vocabulary was very helpful and the Engineers spoke clearly.

We had to design a floating house from the materials provided with a budget of $40 that would sustain different weights. We built floating houses and they were based on a design of a house on stilts. The challenge was difficult because we had to stick to a budget and the items were expensive. It was so exciting to create floating houses and learn to budget at the same time.  

In our activity we had to design a floating house that was based on the stilt houses in Indonesia. The tape was difficult to stick and this made it hard to manage the raft.

We enjoyed how the Engineers gave us some independence to purchase items to build floating rafts. After looking at houses on stilts we designed floating houses and they had to be strong enough to hold weights."

 

Students

Babinda State School

 

Babinda State School Students

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