Schools engineering challenge reaches new heights

Now in its 7th year, the Annual “ICE & SNOW” Schools Engineering Event in the French Alps has proven once more to attract wide attention.

Supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers and sponsored by leading civil engineering organisations including Aecom, Ove Arup, and Jackson Civil Engineering, the event invites children to solve engineering challenges with only basic equipment and limited time.

This year, the winning team was the all-girls team, led by Megan Charles from Aecom. They devised a robust, reliable and efficient answer to the task. Each team had to construct a mountain first, then conceive a means to transport a marble to its base in the slowest possible time, traveling the longest distance and integrating a variety of obstacles. Entries from all teams produced an innovative and original range of techniques, but it was the all-girls team which won on the day with the most reliable and efficient solution.

The triumphant team included pupils from Sheffield High School, Yorkshire, Old Vicarage School, Darley Abbey, Derby, Angley School in Cranbrook, Kent, Sutton Valence School in Kent. “My team worked incredibly well as a team. They listened, they used initiative and they had immense enthusiasm. They left feeling incredibly engaged with the possibilites engineering offers them” says Charles.

Tom Foulkes, Director General of the Institution of Civil Engineers congratulated the winners: “this highly original event has once more demonstrated its ability to engage children with engineering challenges in a highly original way. I congratulate the girls team who showed their particular strength in conceiving a reliable solution to the brief. Nonetheless, I also acknowledge the inventiveness of other entries which impressed the judges enormously. Parents strained to watch the exciting final and gasped with delight to observe their children’s achievements. The ICE is proud to be a supporter of this important event.”