Young engineers showcase projects at Jefa week

Learners of Mitchell House had an opportunity to develop their engineering and life skills during a three-day education and life skills programme presented by Junior Engineers for Africa (Jefa), starting last Monday.
The young engineers were divided into groups and used Lego blocks to construct projects. The key words of the exercise were learn, play, think, build, explore, inspire and grow. The aim of the programme was to develop cognitive and perceptual skills and to allow for creative playing. Hot topics were crazy spinning, pressure, colour and pivot points and the learners had to complete their designated projects within set time limits.
Jefa Director, Stuart Windram said Jefa was born from a small outreach programme using technical Lego blocks to teach engineering principles and robotics to groups of disadvantaged children.
The initiative now runs workshops at schools and science festivals locally and internationally and has, over the last 11 years, reached over 80 000 learners with interactive, hands-on workshops.
“Jefa’s goal is to enable school aged learners to reach their full potential through problem solving activities and learning-by-doing through special interest workshops,” Windram explained.

Story and photo: BARRY VILJOEN
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