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Original poster

Dd 12 wants to be an engineer.. What should we be encouraging?

60 replies

Explodingatomickittens · 08/02/2023 13:03

Dd wants to be an engineer. She loves drawing, designing & creating. Since she was very small she loved trying to discover how things work. She loves maths & anything involving STEM..
Is engineering in the broad sense a good career & how do we help her? I know she's young & may change her mind a million times but we want to encourage her the best we can...

OP posts:

ErrolTheDragon · 08/02/2023 15:19

Pedallleur · 08/02/2023 14:56

Always the maths. Its the basis of everything and as others have said the ability to crunch the numbers and understand them opens other doors. Physics maybe.

Physics definitely!

AuntyMabelandPippin · 08/02/2023 15:42

Our local University did a week during the holidays for budding engineers, I think they had to be 14. It could well have been funded by the Smallpeice Trust, as PPs have said well worth checking out.

TeenDivided · 08/02/2023 18:11

Watch LegoMaster Australia currently on E4.
This week they had to build a long span bridge that would withstand an earthquake.

Original poster

Explodingatomickittens · 08/02/2023 21:00

Thanks everyone for the replies! Just about to read through them!

OP posts:

Lemevoir · 08/02/2023 21:25

www.kentonline.co.uk/malling/news/dont-replace-your-tech-let-us-help-you-fix-it-281796/

I saw this in my local news the other day - a 22 year old woman has set up a company to encourage young people learn about tech.

Neverknowinglysensible · 08/02/2023 21:30

OP, Obviously Maths is important but, please, don’t forget English! Many apprenticeships/uni courses insist on a C at GCSE English Language.

larchforest · 08/02/2023 21:41

EssexCat · 08/02/2023 15:07

Ooh yes re board games my engineer undergraduate son loves a strategic board game (so risk, chess, rummikub) and I definitely think it’s helped his skills.

Show quote history

When I was about 14-15 we had an inspirational maths teacher. We had double maths on Friday afternoons, and we did no actual maths work at all. He had a big cupboard full of board games like Connect 4, draughts and Mastermind, and we played those every week for a whole year. It was brilliant.

RudsyFarmer · 08/02/2023 21:42

Physics and further maths.

ladybluesky · 08/02/2023 21:51

Buy her: How Was That Built?: The Stories Behind Awesome Structures amzn.eu/d/55HlDqv

Great book for kids by engineer Roma Agrawal

Simplelobsterhat · 08/02/2023 22:03

Neon Futures (used to be Tomorrow's engineers) has some good resources including case studies and videos of different engineers which could be inspiring and a quiz to find out what type of engineering might suit you.

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