Do you want your pupils to understand how science applies to real-world contexts, to provide more hands-on engineering experiences in your curriculum or to improve the way you integrate STEM industry partners within children's learning? These are some of the questions asked as part of the Greater Manchester Engineering Challenge (GMEC), an annual programme developed by Manchester University's Science and Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub (SEERIH). The theme 'ExtraOrdinary Spaces' was carefully selected for GMEC 2020, as the construction industry is a priority area of interest for Greater Manchester and for Oldham in particular. With a view to enhancing knowledge and awareness of the construction industry, the discipline of civil engineering was selected. In this article, Rose Edmondson outlines how children and teachers are engaged in a hands-on engineering challenge to enrich their STEM learning.