Peel Community Men’s Shed members hope to foster the minds of the engineers of tomorrow through a STEM-related competition running in local schools, thanks to funding from Mandurah Forum.
Forum operator Vicinity awarded $9000 to the men’s shed as part of its community grants program, which is intended to help community groups deliver programs that strengthen community resilience and connection.
The group will use the grant for a bridge building competition at local schools to promote the development of STEM skills.
Shed president Gary Brown said the competition would challenge students to make bridges out of popsticks and glue, with the bridge able to hold the most weight deemed the winner.
He hoped the program could find some budding engineers.
“It’s really just to get the school kids into a project where they can use their tech drawing and manual arts and other skills,” he said.
“We’re all grandfathers and we’ve got a fair bit of time for the younger ones in the community.
“If we can do something to help them on their way with their education, we’ll all feel good about it and working with the kids is great fun too. And we’ll build some (bridges) as well.”
Mr Brown said the details of the competition were still being developed, but the men’s shed planned to approach every high school in Mandurah to potentially run challenges in November and envisaged the competition would be for students in years 7-9.
Mandurah Forum centre manager Amanda Betteridge said the program would “provide a great opportunity for young and old to collaborate in a fun competition” while also challenging students’ STEM-related abilities.