Bridges to Schools

Howell’s and Costain engineers run this annual event for local primary school children. The project  was created by the Institute of Civil Engineers Wales (ICE) and is currently being managed by Construction Skills. It enables students to build, walk across and deconstruct a prefabricated model suspension bridge. They use their practical talents to build the 12 metre long and 3 metre high cable-stayed bridge, which is the same general design as the Second Severn Crossing.

Aims

The aim of Bridges to Schools is to engage primary school children with engineering.

Resources

• Costain provides the equipment and engineering staff
• 1 member of Howell’s staff
• Refreshments
• Venue – The Senior Sports Hall

Impact

As well as learning about bridges and civil engineering, the project enables students to learn about health and safety and develop team-building skills.

Mrs Ashill, Head of Junior’s at Howell’s School, said: “The feedback from the students and staff has been outstanding and the experience certainly helps with the delivery of the National STEM agenda (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
Costain’s Dave Randall added: “We received a request to help the school and were pleased that we reached so many pupils. The bridge needs a large area to fully construct and not all schools have the facilities. Sharing the facilities at Howell’s certainly worked on this occasion and allowed us to reach many more pupils.”

Pupil Involvement

60 local primary school children benefit from the event annually

Frequency

It is an annual event and lasts for approximately 2 hours.