A construction firm involved in the Dundee Waterfront redevelopment is hunting for mini steel-toed boots for engineers of the future.
Farrans Construction supported a challenge at Grove Academy this week that put all 220 first-year pupils in the position of responding to a crisis-hit country devastated by a hurricane.
Part of the prize for the five-pupil winning team was a visit to the construction site in the landfall area of the Tay Road Bridge, which will involve the young winners being kitted out with full safety gear, including hard hats, fluorescent jackets and steel-toed boots.
Principal teacher of business studies at Grove, Shirley King, said “Farrans are going to order in steel-toed boots in their sizes. They have to get them in specially for them because they didn’t have sizes small enough for the first years.”
She said the event had been a resounding success, with one of the pupils saying, “It’s the best day at school I’ve ever had.”
The object of the exercise, called Hurricane Day, was to introduce young people to the principles of engineering through responding to a country’s needs following a hurricane.
Mrs King said the recent spate of high winds and the devastation caused locally as trees were ripped from the ground and roofs were lifted off buildings gave the youngsters an inkling of what the reality might be of a hurricane-hit country.
Their day started with pictures and reports from The Courier of the storm damage, before the pupils split into teams to take on the task of responding to an imaginary emergency in Honduras.
Mrs King said the event had been so popular and had been such a quality learning experience for the pupils that it would be repeated and become an annual event.
She said credit should go to biology teacher Nicola Moore who saw a similar event in a school elsewhere and wanted to bring it to Grove.
Mrs King also said the event could not have happened without the support of local firms who donated supplies and also came along on the day and shared their engineering expertise with the pupils.
The winning team was made up of Isabelle Rice, Fraser Ross, Niamh Shiel, Joseph Sweeney and Sarah Thomson.
As well as the chance to visit the Waterfront site before the end of term, they were also given vouchers to spend in the Overgate.