• Question: Where there any interesting skills/trips/talks that you learnt/attend whilst in school that you think has had an impact on your career as a engineer or got you more interested in what you do now?

    Asked by meganl56 to Al, Emma, Ivanka, James, Omar on 19 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Al Bartlett

      Al Bartlett answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Hello Meganl056,

      Trips – My school did a few trips to The Science Museum in London – this is a great way to learn about engineering and how it has developed across the ages. It is well worth a visit if you can persuade your school to go – I really think you could learn a lot.

      The biggest impact on my future engineering career at school was my D&T teacher – Miss Allen – She had a really good way of explaining how things worked – She made it very simple and always encouraged us to explore the engineering side of projects. I think that this was what made me think of engineering as a career as it was the lesson that I looked forward to the most.

      My Dad had a large impact on my career choice as well – Although he was an engineer as well, his job concentrated more on the Legal side. I really don’t want to embarass him but he always used to look in the engineering bins to see if there were any bits and pieces that he could bring home for me and my brother to take apart – He always used to come home with various bits of machinery that would last a few hours before becoming a big pile of nuts, bolts and pieces of metal in the middle of the living room floor.

      I enjoyed this so much that I still do it today but on a larger scale………………But not in my living room!!

    • Photo: Emma Bould

      Emma Bould answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I think having a teacher who can relate engineering to real life helped – my physics teacher at high school was good at making our lessons relevant to every day sorts of things.

      We did some really interesting school trips (to the sewage treatment plant believe it or not and also to a biscuit factory) which was great to help understand what engineers and scientists do every day.

      I my interest in sailing perhaps is what made me consider the Navy though…..

    • Photo: Omar Mustufvi

      Omar Mustufvi answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      Most of the trips I can remember were actually biology related for some reason. But like Emma I had a very good (and sometimes a bit crazy) Physics teacher and he really made the lessons fun. I also did some placements while I was at school and college to a pharmaceutical company where I learnt about chemical engineering and then to a turbocharger company which was my first insight into engineering in the automotive world.

      I agree with Al that the Science Museum is a really fun way of learning about science and engineering and I would definitely recommend going, even with your family/friends if you can’t get your school to go. I used to live near there in London and I still enjoy going when I can!

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