Making Knexions Workshop
On Tuesday 1st November, pupils from Year 6 were involved in a Young Engineers ‘Making KNexions’ workshop. They were given a task of building a shelter out of KNex, which would be weather proof and provide lighting inside using a solar panel. They were split into teams of 5 or 6 and were given roles of Design Engineer or Construction Engineer. They were joined by a team of six visiting pupils from Chambersbury School. Each of the teams was mentored by two senior pupils from the Young Engineers Club who acted as Project Managers for the team. All of the teams completed the task, and the shelters were tested to make sure they complied with the size requirements and were weatherproof (by squirting water onto them). The solar panel also needed to work and to not get wet. We were also pleased to welcome two STEM Ambassadors to help with the judging of the task: Richard Boyle, a chemist from Henkel in Hemel Hempstead and Saheed Oyebamiji, a fourth year engineering student from the University of Hertfordshire. The teams were judged on their teamwork and communication skills, how they solved the problem and how the final design satisfied the design brief. All of the pupils all had a great time and they all completed the task successfully.