A 500 word press release for the Kroto Prize for Science Education of Young People 2018. I was lucky enough to be highly commended.
From distant rivers to your kitchen
sink:
The chemical, microbiological and civil
engineering journey of drinking water treatment
Every person in the UK uses ~150 litres
of water each and every single day. But this waster isn’t just used, it’s
wasted, it’s taken for grant. 1 in 3 people leave the tap running while
brushing their teeth – wasting 24 litres of water a day. I designed a course to
teach pupils about all the effort, all of the time, all of the science and
engineering that goes in to getting river water to be of high enough quality to
drink. That water has a value and how they can protect it going forwards.
I tried to contact young people to get
this message across in a multitude of ways. I tried volunteering on a “Water
Bus” with Anglian Water to spread the message of water value to local schools.
I tired volunteering at events, such as New Scientist Live 2017 with The Royal
Society of Biology to demonstrate some of the experiments done in the water
industry to show your quality of water is pristine. But what I found was most
effective was designing a course and delivering it to schools in a series of 7
tutorials with The Brilliant Club. A lot of hard work and 71 pages later, the
course was designed. I have currently delivered it at two schools and am
looking forwards to delivering in many other schools during the course of my
PhD.
I try to make the course as hands-on as
possible. From a flashcard game where pupils work against the clock to try and
put the water treatment processes in the correct order to demonstrations of
chlorine testing that water companies actually do at the customer tap. We use
Play-Doh to recreate microorganisms, I bring in actual props from my PhD (yes,
I went to USA with that poster!), I challenge the pupils to think about their
own water usage and the lead in their own houses. My aim is to spark
discussion, encourage debate and motivate the young people to think about
water.
“Why isn’t this taught in school? It’s
really important and it matters to my future. I think everyone should do it” a
recent pupil from Greater Peterborough Technical College asked me. It’s moments
like these that you actually realise that the young people you’re working with
appreciate the effort that you’re putting in and that you might actually be
encouraging them to change their behaviour and challenge the behaviours of
others. This is why this work is important, it is talking about important
issues and engaging with these young people.
For more information about my water
saving journey, this project and other similar ones I have been working on,
visit my blog at https://nstlamb.blogspot.com/p/home.html or follow me on
Twitter at @Natnotgnats