The Flamingo Engineers at Stroud Green Primary School certainly showed their skill at ‘working within constraints and finding solutions’. Mostly due to some overly fuzzy string and some of the orange and pink balloons being far smaller than their grey counterparts!
In line with Frankie’s mantra of Think it, Build it, Test it, the Year 4s thinked it and then they built it.
After that it was time to test it!
On left, Frankie the flamingo and Clarence the crab ready to race. Clarence already at a major disadvantage!
On right, Ellie the elephant and Frankie the flamingo get ready to race. Hey, wait a minute… is that a rogue Percy the pig who has sneaked into the line up? Or is it one of the other flamingos disguised as Percy the pig? ‘I shall have to investigate’ muttered Frankie as she sploshed off (back to book 1.). We will update you if she ever gets to the bottom of this particular mystery.
On the left, you might think very little happens at this end of the line up but you would be wrong! How taut you hold the string can make or break the success of your balloon. On the right, i think these two flamingo engineers have already realised that after the test they will need to rethink their design of Ellie the elephant a bit. Not her ears. They are super cool. But her trunk might cause a bit of a problem on the aerodynamic front. #justsaying
The Year 4 pupils were helped by Oyin, Andomski and Victor, three fantastic engineers from Etude , who are sustainability engineers working to improve buildings and tackle the climate emergency.
Etude do a mean line in tiny Lego models. Which are very cool. Frankie the flamingo and Clarence the crab can’t wait to be immortalised in Lego, on Etude’s Instagram page. Hint, hint.
Thanks to Alice, Victoria and the Year 4 pupils for hosting us. Special thanks to Alice who took these photos and then got the written permission for us to use them.