56 students enjoyed a trip to the National Railway Museum to attend a Future Engineers programme with the theme ‘connections’.

At the start of the four hour programme the students were introduced to some young engineers, and were encouraged to quiz them about their jobs, careers and lifestyles, to allow the students to conclude that the engineers were ordinary ‘people like them’, and a career in engineering is an ambition they could aspire to.  This activity was conducted in a fun, engaging, game-show format.

The students were then encouraged to think about some of the issues facing the UK rail system today and in the future, and were challenged to brainstorm solutions to these problems.  At the end of the session they were asked to choose one of three issues to think about for the rest of their visit: How can we carry more people? How can we move quicker & safer? What makes a train a train?

After a packed-lunch in the Station Hall the students were taken on a tour of the Engineering Zones distributed around the Great Hall.  The four zones were ‘Chat to an Engineer’, ‘Robot Railways’ (see photo), ‘Screwball Signals’ and ‘Tinkering With Code’.  Each activity was pitched to be fun, informative and challenging, and the students consequently engaged enthusiastically.  Before returning to the Learning Zone the students were allowed free time to browse the museum’s exhibits.

At the end of the programme the students returned to the Learning Zone to think again about the issues facing the UK rail system, and to see if the activities had inspired them to think of any more solutions.  Once again the students engaged well and came up with so many suggestions that the programme leader eventually had to call time.

The students were all very well behaved and were a credit to the Academy.