Tuesday, 17 July 2018

Natalie Lamb and the Kroto Prize for Science Education of Young People 2018


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