Spring 2018 PEG

World Watch

LATITUDE

BIG BRIDGE, TINY BRICKS: LEGO POINTS KIDS TOWARDS ENGINEERING Want to see the world’s largest LEGO bridge? Then add the Capital Building in Liverpool to your travel plans. The world-record-holding bridge stands three metres and has a 31-metre span, or nearly the length of three double-decker buses. It consists of more than 200,000 individual LEGO pieces.

at young people aged seven to 16, will focus on increasing awareness and understanding of what engineers do. The United Kingdom Space Agency is funding numerous projects, such as developing curriculum resources to encourage young people to consider a space industry career, and analyzing key North Pole and South Pole data. If that part doesn’t sound very tourist-friendly, try some of the interactive displays in science and discovery centres across the U.K. The focus of these will be the exciting work of engineers and scientists in British space missions. No word yet, however, on whether visitors get free trips to space.

Built by the United Kingdom’s Institution of Civil Engineers for a public exhibition in London, it’s now been rebuilt, tiny brick by tiny brick, in Liverpool. “It’s LEGO and it’s fun. But also, some of the children who come to marvel at it will perhaps start to think about becoming civil engineers one day,” says an institution spokesperson. By the way, the U.K. has declared 2018 the Year of Engineering. The national campaign, aimed

-photo courtesy the Institution of Civil Engineers

BRIDGE ALIGNMENT Staff members with the Institution of Civil Engineers line up beside the world’s largest LEGO bridge, on display in the U.K.

52 | PEG SPRING 2018

Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker