If you were an engineer, what would you do?

Extendable arms to climb on monkey bars, a turbo-charged tractor and an animal translator were just some of entries submitted to the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award Grading Days 2018.

More than 15,000 children from over 240 primary schools took part in the “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” competition, organised by Primary Engineer.

The children were encouraged to think about solutions to problems and submitted drawings with an explanation of why engineers should build them.

Their entries were graded with feedback by staff, students and alumni from GCU’s engineering community.

The grading day was attended by Lord Provost of Glasgow Eva Bolander who cast her eye on the entries.

“A lot of the entries have been very altruistic and want to help other people,” she said. “Engineering can help enable that, so engineering is very important in our society because of that.”

Susan Scurlock, a GCU Honorary Graduate and the founder and CEO of Primary Engineer, said: “If we think about the different careers that children come into contact with, engineering isn't something they’d necessarily think about until there were older. If we want children to think about engineering as a career, then we need to talk about it earlier.

"The earlier that children engage with engineering, the more that they see it's about problem solving, it's about being creative, it's about applying technology to really fun things and interesting things. I think that will inspire them to think about it as a career later when they're actually in that position, so it's about raising aspirations, getting them excited about the world and seeing that there's a place for them in it.”