Page 13 - link magazine

The Link Magazine • October 2004 13
Young engineers get to grips with problems Circus skills for
Youngsters from seven West Swindon primary schools recently came together in the Greendown School coordination and fun
sports hall to find the best solution to an engineering challenge. A new club to develop juggling
With help from David move more than a centime- and circus skills has been
Cleverly, a member of tre or two. launched by Swindon's very own
the Society of Automo- Max Gorman from Shaw Jake the Juggler.
tive Engineers, and Paul Ridge said his team had Meeting on Tuesday evenings
Kowanacki from Swin- decided to raise their skim- at Lower Shaw Farm, Old Shaw
don Pressings, the chil- mer off the floor using Lane, there are sessions for 9 to 12
dren working in teams straws and had used strong year olds between 7pm and 8pm
had to design and build supports on its sail to (£3), and 13s to adults, from 8pm
a wind powered model achieve a good distance. to 10pm (£4).
skimmer using card, pa- Louise Farndale of Westlea Apart from juggling there will
per, straws and rubber School said her group used be the chance to try unicycling,
bands provided in a kit a similar idea but with dif- diabolo, poi, devilsticks and plate
imported from the USA. ferent results. "The spinning and there are plans to
Each group came up sellotape on the runners put on a Christmas show.
with a variety of ideas slowed our skimmer and Just turn up or call Jake on
before building their our sail was not high 771080; mail: jake@lowershawfarm
skimmer and putting enough to catch the wind .co.0 k
them to the test using a from the fan."
fan - in front of the other Greendown School pri-
schools. mary liaison teacher
Some teams worked Year 6 children from Tregoze School testing their models Angela Proctor said the
out the most efficient project had been a good
design and combination of parts metres, whilst other efforts were competition. "The children really
to exploit the power of wind, which too heavy or did not have enough took to the challenges put to them
saw their skimmer cover several sail area to capture the wind to and had to work hard to agree on
the best ideas to pursue before
building the skimmer in the most
Maths & English to fit around the kids
efficient way. It was an excellent
New College are keen to attract eight people interested in brushing up way of bringing a real world prob-
on English and Maths at a new weekly class to take place at the West lem into a classroom which had chil-
Swindon Family Project. on Gainsborough Way. Freshbrook. dren from different schools in it."
It would take place on Thursday afternoons and fit in with school pick- She added that the same kits
up times. A free creche for pre-school children would also be available. will be used in future years to cre-
For details, call the Family Project on 871303. ate an annual competition.

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Imagine a place where children can learn, play and
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Sam to 6pm, Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays ing the necessary records. Maintain an effective key worker system in order to
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01793 542591 or mail:[email protected] www.osg.coop