by Fourth Class

May 2019

We recently joined forces with a school in Bawnogue, Clondalkin to work on ICT projects. We have got lots of new equipment like Chromebooks and Lego WeDo packs.

As part of our work, we had to complete a project together to show off at an exhibition in Athlone Institute of Technology on 29th May.

Our teachers decided that as our schools are linked by the Grand Canal, we would design and build a bridge and the other school would design and build a boat that would travel under our bridge as it rose in the air.

Mr O’Leary put together 10 groups, each with 3 children, and set us the task of designing the bridge.  We were told that this bridge had to open to allow a boat to sail through, and then close easily to allow traffic to cross the bridge afterwards.

Before we began, we had a chance to research various bridges. We found different styles of bridges which opened in several ways.  We looked at pictures of real bridges to learn how they worked and why they were chosen. Based on this, we came up with our own design.

We pooled our ideas and tried out a few on whiteboards and paper to see how they looked.  There were times when we did not agree so we had to find ways of deciding, even when it was hard to compromise.

We worked in groups of three. In each group, there was an engineer who controlled the computer, a builder who put the lego parts together and a supplier who handed the lego pieces to the builder.  

In order to progress things, two groups decided to join together so they could build a bigger and better bridge.  We soon found that if two bridges were put together, the structure was a lot more successful.

We came across many problems while making the bridge. Some people’s designs looked very good but we just couldn’t make them work with the pieces we had. The first bridge we built was too heavy and the motor wouldn’t lift it. We had to redesign the bridge and make it much lighter. It was hard to get the ramps to match with the bridge and several versions had to be made before we were successful. It took some time to solve these problems but by carefully testing and remaking items, we got there in the end.

We learned how to programme the Lego parts as we had to create code to control what the motor did.  We followed instructions initially but when our confidence grew, we began to figure it out for ourselves and improvise.  It was much more difficult to develop our own code and hard to get the outcome we needed. We tested various codes and saw their effect.  Eventually we were able to choose the code that worked best for the bridge’s motor. Success!! 

 

We really enjoyed the whole process, from beginning to end.  Despite the fact that the bridge worked fine, we found it hard to stop trying to improve it.  This set us back on a couple of occasions as a previously successful design was changed and then didn’t work as well. Overall we were very happy with our bridge. It was great fun to make. Finally, we put together a poster explaining what we had done. 

              

On 29th May, four of our class, Alexandra, Aarron, Olivia and Mateo represented our school at the exhibition at Athlone I.T. They worked with four children from our partner school to show off our work to teachers, government officials and to other school children. The project worked perfectly. As the Bawnogue boat approached, our bridge rose and then when the boat passed through, it came back down. Everyone was very impressed with our project and we had a great day.

Success!!