Environmental engineering day helps the next generation tackle climate change
On Thursday 13 June, JBA Trust, the University of Nottingham and JN Bentley delivered a ‘Risk and Environmental Engineering Day’ for all Year 10 pupils at Skipton Girls’ High School.
The event provided an opportunity for students to gain an understanding of the key principles of flood and coastal risk management and how climate change may affect how we live in the future. Students took part in four interactive workshops, using innovative technology and physical models, to learn about the tools they could be using to tackle climate change in their future careers.
JBA Trust demonstrated several interactive physical models, including the mini hydraulic flume and coastal wave tank, showing how water behaves in rivers and at the coast.
The students also took part in a workshop comparing 2D maps and 3D printed ‘Projected Augmented Relief Models’ (PARM) to demonstrate flood risk scenarios.
“The PARM technique is an excellent way to display complex geographic information in a way people find easy to understand”, added Dr Gary Priestnall from the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham.
Dr Sarah Owen from the University of Nottingham delivered a session using a Geographical Information System (GIS) to map flood risk and natural hazards, with staff from JN Bentley supporting a workshop looking at structures and the world of civil and environmental engineering.
“We are delighted to be working with Skipton Girls’ High School and to be supporting their geography, science, technology, engineering and maths curriculum. The JBA Trust suite of models are an extremely useful tool to bring learning to life and the programme for the day will really support the school’s engineering academy status”, commented Rob Lamb, Managing Director of JBA Trust.
JBA Consulting staff supported the event by demonstrating some of the physical models and sharing their knowledge of working in the water and environmental management sector.
“We need to redress the gender imbalance within such subjects as Engineering, Computer Science, Maths and Physics. The range of activities that we have planned for the day will hopefully provide an insight into just how far Engineering and Technology affects our everyday lives; more importantly how they can be used to solve the challenges that face the human race such as climate change”, added Paul Braden, Technology Curriculum Leader at Skipton Girls High School.
