Hands-on Ocean Antics!As part of National Science and Engineering Week 2008, the Inspiring Seas team ran a week-long series of activities with Key Stage 3 pupils in Northeast England exploring the sheer diversity and importance of life in our seas and human achievements in marine engineering.
Life in our seas was put under the microscope to investigate how marine aliens invade our waters and potentially cause threats to local habitats and ecosystems on a catastrophic scale!
During a lively exploration of local marine life, Key Stage 3 pupils used microscopes to identify and draw tiny ocean beasties. They then had the opportunity to enjoy face-to-face encounters with some real marine aliens. The furry Chinese Mitten crab was first under the spotlight, with its menacing claws. Next to be introduced were zebra mussels, aliens whose rapid colonisation of most surfaces makes them a ferocious marine invader.
These hands-on encounters helped pupils to absorb and understand information about the impact of marine alien species, which participants then used to decide on the best methods to prevent their spread. Finally, they designed posters, as part of an interschool competition, to inform the general public of their findings.
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After participating in Alien Life in Our Seas! one pupil from East Gosforth Middle School commented: “The sea has more life in it than I first thought and it’s not all slimy and yucky. It’s actually really interesting!” A pupil from Monkseaton High School thought “Life in our seas is really interesting, with lots… to discover” |
The project revealed to young people how exciting and interesting marine science and engineering as subjects can be. A pupil from Longbenton Community College commented that “It [marine science and technology] should be a subject at school because it is so fun and interesting - I think it’s really cool!” 
The Inspiring Seas team would like to thank Monkseaton High School, Longbenton Community College, Jarrow School and East Gosforth Middle School for participating in Alien Life in Our Seas!
In particular, we send our congratulations to Megan White (pictured), a pupil from East Gosforth Middle School, who won our interschool poster design competition. Her unique approach, which spoke of the threats the Chinese Mitten crab poses to Northeast coastal waters from the perspective of this invasive creature, was first class. Megan won her school a copy of David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet DVD and accompanying book to the series. Also shown above are second place poster design: ‘mitten crab rap’ by pupils at Monkseaton High School, and third place runner-up from a very artistic pupil of Jarrow School.
Ship-Shape!Key Stage 3 pupils put their maritime minds to the test by applying physics and materials science theory from the National Curriculum to practical ship design.
Getting into teams, participants prepared themselves to take part in an interschool competition. The task - to design and build an eco-friendly ship which, when tested in our mini-towing tank facility, carried the most amount of cargo in an opposing current of water for the least amount of counter-balance weight required, which we represented as ‘money’.
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Teams firstly applied their creative minds to think about the forces acting on ships, in particular drag and up-thrust. Pupils then explored the relationship between ship-shape and drag, appreciating that if their final ship designs had a more streamlined shape and were smooth to the touch, they would be less affected by drag and therefore require less counter-balance (money) to drive their ships forward. |
A pupil from Longbenton Community College summed-up the ‘take-home’ message of this activity nicely when they said “I learned that the more streamlined the shape of ships, the more efficient they are to carry cargo“.
Pupils also discovered that the shape of ships ties in with how ‘green’ they are and how much they cost to run as with a more streamlined shape ships use less fuel to overcome drag, saving on money and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
We felt this activity, which put physics and design principles in the context of shipping, went a long way in changing student perceptions’ of physics. A student from Longbenton Community College said “It [Ship-Shape!] was really interesting as I would not normally do things like that”. Similarly, a student from Jarrow School stated “first I thought it would be boring, but now I have done it [Ship-Shape!] it was really interesting”.
The Inspiring Seas team would like to thank Longbenton Community College and Jarrow School for participating in Ship-Shape as part of our National Science and Engineering Week celebrations.
In particular, we send our congratulations to team ‘Hotdog’ (pictured) of Longbenton Community College, whose ingenious ship design proved to be the most efficient of all those created during Science and Engineering Week. Their winning ship is pictured above.
Team ‘Hotdog’ won their school a copy of David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet DVD and accompanying book to the series.
Also shown above are the creative efforts of second place ship designers ‘Titanic 2’, also of Longbenton Community College, and third place ‘Jarra’ of Jarrow School.