Narec Engages in Education

To mark Wind Week 2014, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre based in Blyth has supported and organised a series of activities with schools in the local community related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects (STEM).

30 students from Cramlington Learning Village, tasked in designing and building their own wind turbine made from recycled plastic complete with a working motor, visited the site as part of their wind power project.

The class met with some of our engineers and took part in an interactive workshop to learn about renewable energy, power efficiency and performance, torque and optimisation of wind turbine designs to help them with their projects. The class were able to put their learning into practice with a special tour of the state-of-the-art 100m blade test facility, giving them the opportunity to see a wind turbine blade up-close for the first time.

Mr Kilpatrick and Dr Kemp, Science Teachers, Cramlington Learning Village, said: “The visit was extremely worthwhile and beneficial, it not only provided the students with lots of inspiration for their projects but also a wealth of future career ideas.

“I would like to give everyone involved a huge thank you for their time and support, and I look forward to working together again in the future.”

In the same week six students from The Blyth Academy went to the prestigious Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester to compete as a team in the national final of Lego Education’s Elite Engineering Programme (EEP).

During the past couple of months the team, Error 404, which has been supported by the ORE Catapult, has had to build sophisticated programmable robots in order to complete a space challenge, which included launching a rocket from its launch pad and returning astronauts to their vehicle in under 3.5 minutes.

Mr Stevens, Design & Technology Teacher, The Blyth Academy, said: “The competition is a great, fun and interactive way of encouraging pupils to think about a career in engineering and STEM. Getting to the national final is a huge achievement and working as a team the students also get to learn a variety of other key life skills.

“I am really grateful to the support we have received, particular thanks go to the ORE Catapult’s, National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth for kindly agreeing to sponsor Error 404’s team t-shirts.”