Students build on course knowledge thanks to week-long construction project

Students from the Environmental Civil Engineering programme have put their course knowledge into practice during a live construction project to build a bridge.

The ConStructEd project challenges students to build a 12-metre bridge in just one week, under conditions similar to a real construction project.

Split into teams, the students assigned roles to help oversee the production, including Project Planner, Environmental Manager Health and Safety Manager.

With a couple of weeks to prepare for the project, students were surprised to see how well their course has prepared them for their chosen industry.

“We heard about it through our course at university. I had actually never heard of it before, but it’s an experience offered to students on the Environmental Civil Engineering course who haven’t found an industry placement.” Explained 3^rd Year Environmental Civil Engineering student and Project Planner, Rebecca Wilson.

She added: “Before it started, we had two-hour classes to prepare for it and it was during that time that we chose our roles. I decided to put myself forward as the Project Planner, but luckily everyone got the role that they wanted to do.”

Amongst the team of students included student Kieran Oliver, who put himself forward for the role of Health and Safety Manager. He said: “There was quite a lot of paperwork involved! I had to create the risk assessments and the method statements.

Overall, it was just a case of monitoring everything and making sure that people were complying with what was outlined on the risk assessments – making sure they were as safe as possible.

I did think that when I started it that I’d be a bit more prepared, especially since I have experience of being a part of Scouts and doing a lot of risk assessments with that. I soon realised it was very different!”

With it being their first time on a live building site, some of the students were initially apprehensive to begin the project. Rebecca explained: “Before we officially got on site, we did a lot of planning beforehand but for a lot of us, it was our first experience of being on a site.

On day one, people were standing around at first and not really sure what to do but after that, everyone realised what they had to do. At the end of each night, I would look over the plans for the next day and adjust parts so we could make sure that we could get it done on time.”

She added: “I did get the chance to do a lot of work on site which was good, since the Project Planner would usually be based in the office. There were some challenges around miscommunication between the team members but that’s just part of the project – we all learn from it.

Despite some challenges, the students agreed that the highlight of the week was seeing the completed bridge structure.

“The highlight for me was actually getting the bridge built! At the start of the week, I felt quite anxious to go on site but knowing how much work we completed and to have it all finished was a great feeling.”

Kieran added: “As I said before, I thought I was quite prepared going into the project but it was a real opportunity to put what we have learned into practice. I also learned that plans don’t always work out and you need to make adjustments but it was a really good learning opportunity.

It was really insightful to see how useful your coursework has been when applying it to a realistic scenario.”

Now nearing the end of their degrees, both Rebecca and Kieran feel that they would have appreciated being exposed to the world of engineering while they were still at school.

“This may sound silly, but I didn’t know what an engineer was when I was in school. I initially started a different course when I left school and chose to do this course instead. What we really need at school level is more people showing us what an engineer actually is and what they do. Knowing what I know now, I definitely would have definitely chosen to study Engineering when I was in school if I had the earlier influence.”

Kieran added: “I initially completed a degree in Aeronautics at the University of Glasgow but I decided to join the course at GCU after I realised what I really wanted to do. I feel that if I got that exposure while in school, I would have picked the right decision earlier.

I first got interested in Aeronautics through my grandpa who worked at airports when I was younger. When I was completing the Aeronautics degree, I realised that I couldn’t really connect with the subject as well. After that, I decided to research into different areas of engineering and discovered that Civil Engineering was the one that I wanted to go with.”

By Rachael McAlonan