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News | Events | Academic | Arts and Culture | Sport | Clubs and Societies | The School | Past Pupils | Archive | |
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News | Events | Academic | Arts and Culture | Sport | Clubs and Societies | The School | Wanting Civil Engineers? Look to Wynberg Girls... On Wednesday, 21 March, Nadiya Allie, Mariette Fourie and I went to Century City to compete in the Western Cape Schools' Model Bridge Building Competition organised by the South African Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE). We arrived at 08:00 feeling nervous and very uncertain about what to expect - our school had never competed in this competition before. We registered, had a short lecture and at 09:30 we started the long five hour slog of building our bridge. We had to design our bridge first on paper and then begin cutting 25 sticks of 4mm x 4mm wood into many other pieces that would eventually be transformed into our little masterpiece.
We even took a few moments to smile!!
As the time passed the pieces of wood lying around became fewer ... and our structure was slowly started to form. But our time was running out and so was the amount of wood we needed to complete it! With very little time to spare, we managed to finish - with absolutely no wood left. We felt very tired and at this stage, were a tad irritated at the sight of any pieces of wood.... After letting the bridges dry for a couple of hours, they were judged on Aesthetic Appeal ... we were looking good....
Then came the next test. All competitors had to go up on stage and attach weights to their bridge to see whose could hold the most.
and we added some weights, and counted to five.
and even more We were smiling!! Our bridge managed to hold 19.8 kg - a huge surprise for us! But it was with mixed feelings that we discovered this: clearly the acid test destroyed the work we had so painstakingly put together.
It was an extraordinary challenge. New friendships were forged, and unexpected support was proffered from our rivals! The organisation was excellent, the food was great and the mementoes given were well received! Perhaps most significantly there was enormous satisfaction in defeating some of our age-old rivals, being challenged and stimulated by our betters - we came twelfth out of forty contenders - and being the top girls' school/ Viva Wynberg, Viva! Lisa Price Want to hear more? Read what Mariette Fourie had to say. |
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