Written by Tim Brew, Programme Manager for Education, Skills and Stakeholder Engagement at PCF.
Image: Platform designed by Year 6 Pembroke Dock school pupils and fabricated by Pembrokeshire College engineering apprentices.
How did that get there?
When I was 10, I loved The Great Egg Race, Tomorrow’s World, and those Blue Peter competitions where you sent in an experiment for astronauts to test in space. The idea that a young person like me could ask a question or come up with an idea that the experts hadn’t thought of yet was genuinely exciting!
Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum (PCF) doesn’t have a space station, but I can see our Marine Energy Test Area (META) from my desk at work.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if local kids could try an experiment in there…”
Images of three of our Marine Energy Test Area sites.
We’re now in our second year of the META Education Project.
This has enabled learners from Pembrokeshire’s schools to find out about marine renewables in practical workshops, design an experiment that collects data, and then work out what that data means. Along the way, the learners have access to support and advice from people working in the sector. Their knowledge and enthusiasm for sharing their work has brought this project to life.
This is the story of the most recent experiment which saw collaboration between 3 groups of 10-year-olds, their teachers, a group of apprentices, an industry research organisation, and local businesses.
Three classes in Year 6 from Pembroke Dock Community School took part. In the first sessions, pupils took part in a challenge to construct a floating platform using the materials provided. Each group could earn extra budget by providing a diagram of what they would build and costing their materials before they started.
Pupils used what they had learned to build a better model from readily available materials in time for our next visit. The learners were really excited to share their ideas with Arne Voegler (MEECE), Sean Evans (Blue Gem), and Gavin Williams (Mainstay), and they loved watching the three experts collaborate with them as they demonstrated their designs in the test tank.
Pupils put forward their proposals for sea testing . There were many great ideas but adding weights, drag plates or both were all popular suggestions. Pupils applied their science knowledge, identifying the different types variables and describing how to make sure it was a fair test.
A critical component to making this all happen was having a test platform, that would perform in a similar way to a floating wind platform that was strong enough to use in the sea. MEECE stepped in to design a steel platform, based on a model used in research. It provides a useful resource not only for this project with young learners, but for use with other groups at different levels of education in the future.
Pembrokeshire College Engineering Apprentices took on the challenge of fabrication, skilfully transforming plans and steel sheets into the impressive seaworthy platform, ready for the pupils’ to test.
META Operations Manager Saul Young created a plan to conduct the experiment safely. Rudders Boat Yard provide the essential service needed to operate META, and their support and use of their pontoon was very much appreciated.
Data was collected using the META’s SOFAR Buoys. These enabled the motion of the buoy secured to the floating platform to be compared to the motion of the sea throughout the afternoon of testing the different interventions.
The data was then simplified so the pupils could analyse it and determine which of their interventions worked best. Each class calculated the average stability of their platform compared to the control experiment. It is fair to say that in most school science experiments we know what will happen, so I hope we managed to share the joy of not knowing but doing our best to find out. The groups all came together to compare their results.
Working with Pembroke Dock Community School was a great opportunity to bring the marine renewable energy sector into the classroom, for pupils to meet the people who work nearby doing jobs the children didn’t know existed. The development of renewables has the potential to reinvigorate communities like Pembroke Dock. Hopefully, the pupils’ work on the META Education Project could be the start of their journey into awesome careers.
Platform fabricated by Pembrokeshire College Engineering apprentices.
This project was made possible by the support of the Skills and Talent programme and the Port of Milford Haven.
