Engineers’ Week is celebrated in all primary schools across Ireland in the Spring term. With STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – being so central to our everyday lives teachers have recognised the importance of introducing these subjects to children as early in the school career as possible. It is also important that the children see how the subjects are interdependent.
With all that in mind we embraced Engineers’ Week with the usual Kilian’s gusto. Every child from 1st to 6th got the opportunity to work on an engineering project. And n-instead of our usual ‘horizontal’ classes we organised the children ‘vertically’ – with representatives of all ages in each ‘family’. Projects included building a water tower, marble mazes, spaghetti towers and improving on The Three Little Pigs engineering of houses of straw, sticks and straw – with a guest appearance by the Big Bad Wolf (a hairdryer!).
Great fun was had by all. The children were introduced to new vocabulary and concepts and with a bit of luck we will have inspired a few future inventors and designers. The organisation of the morning was managed by the wonderful Mrs Bowen with her usual efficiency and flair!
By Annette Black
