UWE BoxED at Bailey’s Court Primary School Update

Meetin-thespian-FEATFollowing on from their earlier work on Microbial Fuel cells with the help from the BoxED team from the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE), Drs Jon Winfield and Debbie Lewis, the year 5 pupils and staff from Bailey’s Court visited the UWE’s Frenchay Campus where they had an opportunity to visit the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) and the Bristol BioEnergy Centre (BBiC) and learn how microbial fuel cells help provide robots with energy.  They also got introduced to lots of other robots in the lab, including being serenaded by Thespian, and seeing the large flying area for the drones being worked on at the BRL.

As the pupils made their way across campus to the science department in the education building, UWE student ambassadors showed the pupils many aspects of university life including the student accommodation, sports facilities, library and a large lecture room to name but a few things.  On arrival at the education department the pupils were greeted by science staff, including a number of professors, where they had the opportunity to present their posters of their work and discuss the project – UWE staff were amazed at the enthusiasm and knowledge the children had for the project and for science at such a young age!

burning-stuff-webThe afternoon provided the opportunity to extend their hands-on laboratory work and learn about how we determine how much energy food provides us by setting it alight and seeing the amount of heat given off.  Finally how much exercise is required to light up a bulb or even power a kettle by pedalling a specially adapted bike.

bikes-webThey soon learnt a lot of energy is required for many electrical items!

The pupils left UWE and the science project having had a brilliant time and exposure to a positive STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) experience and one that the staff and students of UWE thoroughly enjoy being involved in.  Hopefully the seed has been sown to aspire the next generation of scientists and university students, whatever they choose to study.

This project was supported by UWE BoxED and BBiC.  Please contact [email protected] to discuss other opportunities for outreach activities with schools.

This update was published in the July 2016 edition of Bradley Stoke Matters

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