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wtf do you talk to a bunch of 5 year olds about engineering???
LEGO.
what he said ^^^^ easy
build something simple, a boat, a car, a bridge and do a little talk about forces forces in = forces out etc.
Make a little light (dissasemble a torch) and explain how it works.
Dont worry mate... you will have bored them all to sleep after 2 lines... you do with us anyway.
you will have bored them all to sleep after 2 lines...
So long?? ****.
Just talk about when it goes wrong or something.
Make it visual, make it hands on. Might be better to ask a teacher but I remember the things that grabbed the attention of my two at that age were very "practical".
Perfect example would be the building of an arch out of foam blocks and being able to walk over it.
lego bridges
Perfect example would be the building of an arch out of foam blocks and [u]being able to walk over it[/u].
*shakes head* H&S.
A fun game could be to build a bridge out of dominoes, although perhaps too hard for that age group. No glue or anything sticky.
Just tell them Great Britain was built on engineering,we developed steam and diesel trains we exported the first trains,some still running round the world,we developed high speed trains, we developed trams, we developed iron and steel founding, and the various process to make purer and stronger steels, we had a massive car/bike/motorcycle/bus and lorry manufacturing industry.
Then one day, for some reason a lot of very silly people elected a naughty lady called thatcher, who systematically destroyed British industry, and the way of the working classes for ever.
Now we have the same sort of silly people, doing exactly the same thing, but as the big factories have closed, these people are closing your schools,taking your parents jobs away making your parents homeless,your grand parents will be forced out of their homes,and put into horrible no-care homes.
Possibly the most some of you children will get to engineering is the Lego you play with, which is made in a foreign country.
don simon - MemberPerfect example would be the building of an arch out of foam blocks and being able to walk over it.
*shakes head* H&S.
Posted 8 minutes ago # Report-Post
They manage to get away with it at the Centre for Life in Newcastle.
##EDIT## or did a couple of years ago.
Then one day, for some reason a lot of very silly people elected a naughty lady called thatcher, who systematically destroyed British industry, and the way of the working classes for ever
I hope you are trolling!
Definately not.
Destruction of the engineering base is not something to joke about.
spagetty bridge is the classic.
Another good one I remember from school is take a length of cotton and see how much weight it take before it breaks. Then take 3 lengths of cotton and ask them how much it will take to break, they will prob say 3 time as much. Plat the cotton and show how much more than 3 time it takes to snap. No need to go into the complex maths but it's a good example of how the methods we use a material can effect how strong they are.
Then one day, for some reason a lot of very silly people elected a naughty lady called thatcher, who systematically destroyed British industry, and the way of the working classes for ever.
You've not read modern history have you? Whatever ever you do, don't research this...such a shame to ruin a good story with facts.
We did a challenge day for school kids and challenged them to build a bridge from magnets and ball bearings (you get the kits in the shops but cant remember what they are called) then tested them by loading the structure with tins of tuna. They had aroud 5min to plan construct and test. went down well and kids enjoyed it. not sure if its just a talk or interactive but thats one idea that worked for me in the past
Making a short span bridge using just sheets of paper
I was there.
As if British industry would've been perfectly fine if Thatch had left it alone...!
Get some video of the tacoma narrows bridge and the Ferrybridge collapses
take your bike in, strip it while explaining engineering things,then get the little ones to polish it good and then they can watch you rebuild it ;-)))
As if British industry would've been perfectly fine if Thatch had left it alone...!
well seeing as she did something to it was a good thing or a bad thing?
wors bridges would be good as you can show video of them collapsing
just make it exciting and short or activity based if a bit longer than say 10 mins. they dont want a long talk they want to do something.
10 minutes!!With 5 year olds!!!??? Good luck!
Get them in groups of two or three and give them a competition to build the highest tower from A4 sheets of paper. If I remember correctly, a series of progressively smaller cones works best due to stability and buckling. It's both hands on and do-able at their age. You just walk round, ask questions and guide them.
I'd say that engineering here is in decent health actually. manufacturing less so maybe.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0125v5k
Structures. Hot glue gun and a big bag of paper straws. Build a bridge, talk about compression and tension, arches and triangles. Add weight till it collapses. Great fun.
Non newtonian fluids. Get them to run across custard.
When I was at school we had to build a bridge out of paper, which ever team could support the most paper won. There were some really creative schemes using ridges folded in paper (to increase the neutral axis i presume). HOwever my team won ...we used single sheets of a4 strung out and reinforced with sellotape!
Paper Airplanes? Train? Rockets?
ooh paper airplanes - good idea that
'aeroplanes', please.
what you should say to them is this:
"People like me will come in and tell you how exciting Engineering is. They may talk about problem solving and inventing things, they may mention James Dyson or let you play with lego. The reality of the actual job is that you will spend less than 1% of your time on this type of thing, the rest of it will be spent on utterly tedious bollocks like risk reviews and quality plans. You will be underpaid compared to other professional people and most likely sit in an office on an industrial estate surrounded by bad smelling geeks in crap clothes"
Actually, I think papa has just hit the nail on the head.
"People like me will come in and tell you how exciting Engineering is. They may talk about problem solving and inventing things, they may mention James Dyson or let you play with lego. The reality of the actual job is that you will spend less than 1% of your time on this type of thing, the rest of it will be spent on utterly tedious bollocks like risk reviews and quality plans. You will be underpaid compared to other professional people and most likely sit in an office on an industrial estate surrounded by bad smelling geeks in crap clothes wasting time on STW"
FTFY.
Very true p_l but only if you're not that good an engineer 😉
Only on STW can a question on what to talk to 5 year olds about turn into a debate about Thatcher. Bravo boys, great work.
Hot glue gun and a big bag of paper straws
Hot glue and five year olds? That'll be a fun lesson! I'm not sure even making paper aeroplanes will be easy with that kind of age.
Same for all the 'science challenge' ideas above - can you really do those with 5 year olds?
I'd be thinking towers of blocks kind of level with that lot.
When I was at school we had to build a bridge out of paper, which ever team could support the most paper won. There were some really creative schemes using ridges folded in paper (to increase the neutral axis i presume). HOwever my team won ...we used single sheets of a4 strung out and reinforced with sellotape
We did exactly the same challenge. The flat sheets of paper was as strong as my design, but the team had put absolutely no thought or effort into it so they did not get the prize 🙂 My solution was tubular, but of course it ended up like a double-thickness flat paper...
We were 7 years old, we didn't realise that the only way paper is strong is in tension. Which is why it's a pretty silly challenge to be fair.
quality statement papa!!
Get some straws and some Blutack, build bridges etc. Or get a foot pump, empty soft drink bottle and some 'fins' then make a water rocket.
Kids like blutack and water. Take a couple of bags of jelly snakes and they're on your side from the start.
Show them this little Youtube video
If the link doesn't work search for "Train Loop the loop"
makes me giggle when I watch it