[Moldova] Students competed crafting bridges
Peace Winds organised a “Craft Contest” in August at a Moldovan school to which children evacuated from Ukraine also attend. Peace Winds supported the renovation of this school, Taras Shevchenko School, in Chisinau as part of our project to improve the educational infrastructure which both Ukrainian and Moldovan children attend to. The idea of this special summer event was proposed by one of our staff who graduated from Moldovan Institute of Technology with his good memory to enjoy the same event when he was a student. The participants were the students from 7th through 9th grade (from 12 to 15 years old), including Ukrainian students from another Moldovan school which hosts Ukrainian refugee students.
the poster designed by Peace Winds staff calling for participation
The goal of the contest was to design and craft a bridge with limited materials in three hours. These rules and conditions were not informed to the participants beforehand, so students who paired randomly on that day competed on the same ground.
The materials and tools were provided equally to all the teams.
Teamwork was one of the keys of winning in the competition.
The bridge was required to stand the weight of 1.5 kg and to allow a mini car to pass through. The minimum width and length of the bridges were also assigned in the given directions.
Each team had different approaches; One team was taking time for preparation of the design, and the other team was trying out different kinds of models to achieve the best model.
This team took time to carefully examine the given directions.
This team spared time for concept and design.
This team examined and tried out the materials.
All the teams successfully completed crafting their bridges in time and prepared themselves for the presentation. The climax was the moment to test if the bridges could hold the weight of 1.5 kg and an electric mini car could safely pass the bridge.
Everyone holds their breaths to see the tests.
This team put weight on the bridge while others watched.
At the end, three staff of Peace Winds evaluated the bridges from the points of the strength, design, effective usage of the materials, function, safety and presentation, and ranked them.
a final group photo with the bridges participants made
It was fun to see different kinds of bridges made from the same materials, because each team showed creativity in various ways. The participants curiously asked each other questions at presentations.
There are more than 120,000 Ukrainian people evacuated and living in Moldova. About 40% of them are children under 17 years old. Peace Winds has been implementing the program to enhance mutual understanding between Ukrainian and Moldovan students at Taras Shevchenko School and Mihail Kotsubinski School. This summer event was part of this program. We hope this program helps students better understand each other’s situations and learn to respect each other.
The projects in Moldova have been supported by the donation from individual and corporate supporters and the grants from Japan Platform. We appreciate your continuous support. Thank you.