While our Girls and Boys team’s participated in the Spar 5’s those who remained back at base had a lovely visit from Anne Wiseman from the Technology Department of GMIT Castlebar.

Anne gave a very interesting talk to 4th, 5th and 6th class on the role of an engineer and the different types of engineers out there. She first introduced herself as a structural engineer and told us about her role as an engineer and her work in GMIT. She then followed with a very interesting animated video about where we encounter the work of an engineer in our daily lives from the moment we wake up to going to bed at night. It was amazing all the little things we take for granted and how different our lives would be if they had not been engineered.

Someone had to engineer the home we live in, how we get running water, the toothpaste we use to keep our teeth healthy and clean, the machines to make the books that we learn from and the wonderful technology our school is lucky to be able to use such as the IWB, laptops, cameras and the various software we use to the engineering in making a simple cup of tea! In this video it also explained briefly about the different types of engineers such as mechanical, civil, chemical, structural, electrical, aeronautical and computer engineers to name but a few. Anne used the example of an aeroplane and how many different engineers work on such a project to get it to the product we see and travel on.

At the end, Anne asked us if we had any questions about an engineer and there was a great response. Some questions were related to where inventions would lead to in the future.
Would robots be used in all aspects of life? Will we have driverless cars? Will fusion energy become the way of the future? The talk sparked huge interest and debate and I have no doubt there are many future engineers in our school!!