A bridge too far...

This week Year 6 pupils followed in the footsteps of the famous Victorian engineer , Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was reknowned for building bridges. The task of making a strong bridge from nothing but paper, glue and a few nuts and bolts might have been daunting for some however it was greeted with relish by the 13 teams competing in the build a bridge competition.



The teams were briefed by Dr Hayley Tamblyn & Charlene Knox of CardGeotechnics Ltd on the various different bridge types: arch,beam and suspension. Armed with this knowledge, the teams had only an hour to build a bridge that could transport a truck over a gap of 50cm.


Newport's team were praised by Dr Tamblyn on being one of the first teams to pay close attention to constructing a strong reinforced deck. Aaron , in particular, impressed the judges with his attention to detail. Everyone on the Newport team contributed to ensuring the bridge was completed on time.


All the great team work paid off and Newport succeeded in building a strong bridge although they found the testing rather nerve wracking as judged by the expressions on the team's faces.



Well done to Gemma, Aaron, Juho, Irron, Lewis and Cameron who really enjoyed the practical aspects of this challenge and now have a greater understanding of the skills needed to undertake civil engineering projects.