Outreach to Schools: Introduction to Coastal Research and Materials for A-level teachers

One of the outreach activities of CERG is the production of some web-based materials that describe Coastal Engineering research to GCSE and A-level students, to try to enthuse young people into choosing engineering (or science) as a subject when they enter university. These materials are divided into two parts, which are described below. The first part of these materials relates to the research itself, and is an interface for the public to get a grasp of what being a coastal engineering researcher is like. The first page of this interface consists of a short description of what coastal research is about, with a link to a page with the list of projects we are involved in. Then each project is described in simple words. Pictures and movies of students and young researchers developing models, doing some laboratory work, or involved in field work illustrate different activities coastal engineers may be involved in. These pages have links to the official pages of each of the projects, so that visitors to the site that are keen to know more can browse through our pages. Finally, a list of additional resources is given. These resources describe in more detail the techniques that we use, both to familiarise youngsters with technical terms and make them aware of the skills involved in this career path. The second part of the materials consists of a series of pages that explain the links of our work with the A-level syllabi of Geography, Mathematics, Physics and ICT. A-level teachers can use this part in class if they want to, so that the students in their course see the relevance of the subject in future career choices. This part can also be used as an introduction to the coastal research materials.

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Further Mathematics Conference and Headstart Programme

Since 2009 CERG has led short sessions in the Further Mathematics Conference and Headstart workshops on renewable energy devices, involving: sessions on renewable energy devices design and make, sessions on prototype testing and computations of energy conversion efficiency of different prototypes, keynote lectures on renewables and on coastal engineering, and boat trips to the Plymouth Sound. These workshops and events have been well received by the participants and have provided challenging as well as entertaining activities for burgeoning scientists and engineers.

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