With plenty of helpers from the Engineering club to lend a hand whenever help was need, the girls quickly learned how to solder their components to the boards provided. The university is equipped with three large technical rooms for any form of electronic work, including soldering irons, safety goggles, and other essential tools.

The girls had great successes, and although there was no masterpieces finished by the time we had to reluctantly leave, plenty were completed when we got back to school. There was also a chance for the young engineers to build a “crazy electric wire challenge”, and the constant buzzing eventually drove everyone in the workshop mad.

While this was happening, a bridge building challenge was taking place in the James Clerk Maxwell building of the University. The material used was different to last year’s straws. It was, in fact, spaghetti, that was to be the steel girders of the models. Though numerous bridges seemed to be more sticky-tape than pasta, they all had their unique design, strengths, and weaknesses. Many bridges were torn apart by the weights that were put on them and few came away in one piece, but the few than held more than five times their own weight earned their prestigious place in the top 10.

All three of the Peebles teams got into the top ten, but the overall winner was Lochaber High School as their bridge held an amazing 25.91 times its own weight. The teams all thoroughly enjoyed themselves and are all raring to go for another chance next year.