Brunel Day

I have been so excited about looking at the work Isambard Kingdom Brunel did in the south west. We have a lot locally to remind us of his legacy. I am particularly excited about the school trip we will make next week - but more on that when it happens.

So today we started off by looking at some images of Brunel and from the pictures we worked out that he built railways, bridges and ships. Today we concentrated on the Great Western Railway which runs from Bristol to London Paddington, and the Clifton Suspension Bridge which spans the Avon Gorge in Bristol.

The boys got the wooden train set out and set about building their railway.

This is taken from the north so Bristol is on the right. The resplendent Box tunnel aka Pampers box near Bath is decorated with lots of trees



George 2 was even motivated to write the place names



We then set about building the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This as so much fun. We built ours using straws, masking tape and dental floss. The idea came from Building Big. We learnt about engineering and force. George 1 even did some money counting! Once the towers were up, we hung a plastic cup off the bridge and put coins in it. It held £10 in pound coins and 50ps before it collapsed.

When we added the dental floss suspension wire, it became almost indestructible.

It even looks pretty good I think



I was able to hold George 1's wallet which weighed 480g. DadaSmu suggested that we move the weight from the centre, to the edge. It immediately collapsed of course. Then George 1 asked how that works in reality as cars don't just go in the middle of the bridge. We discussed supporting wires and weight distribution.

This has been a really good activity and we've covered a lot of areas of learning including history, geography, maths, science, literacy, art. I feel very satisfied today