We’ve been studying World War II and have encountered the engineer Rosie Riviter. We have listened to a story about Rosie, a budding engineer like ourselves, whose great-aunt Rose comes to visit, just when Rosie needs some self-confidence in her engineering ability.

As part of our STEM work, we’ve been studying shapes and forces.

We set ourselves a challenge this month!

Seniors made some 3D constructions using lollipop sticks and tac.

We googled bicycles, and explored what shapes make them move, and what shapes make them strong.

We built strong structures, reinforcing them with struts.

We googled structures in the real world, like the Eiffel Tower, and geodesic designs, and arched bridges. We have some great knowledge already in our classroom on these strong structures.

We tested our 3D shapes using light pressure.

Next we had a design and make challenge.

In our groups or pairs, we made strong structures that had to hold a heavy, hardback Jacqueline Wilson book…

Or we made a tall structure! Students chose their task.

The Construction Stage!

We discussed rubrics and made plans, constructed and tested!

The Evaluation Stage!