Power to Pylon
STEM Awareness Day
Some of our amazing year 8 and 9 pupils had the opportunity to join in on a STEM awareness day ‘Power to Pylon’. Off we went on our travels all the way to Big Pit in Blaenavon. The day was made up of interesting talks about the history of power in Wales, careers in the field of power generation and challenges from the staff working at Big Pit, National Grid and EESW STEM Cymru.
The pupils had a jam-packed day full of engaging and exciting activities which allowed to gain knowledge about the development of the Welsh coal industry, the influence of new pioneering inventions. They particularly enjoyed learning about the first locomotive journey the Penydarren loco took in 1804, from Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon and the development of the blast furnace process to create iron, which was huge industry in South Wales at one point. This brought together the history of the pupils’ communities and science they are learning now in school.
In teams, the enthusiastic and engaged pupils were challenged to create a new design for a power pylon. They were given a short introduction about how pylons are used to transport our electricity across the country and then they were given free rein to design what they wanted.
After this they were given the task to create new wind turbines that could generate enough electrical voltage to power all the mobile phones in a typical class.
The day was huge hit from start to finish. The pupils were given insight into jobs such as mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, assembly engineer and design engineer. All their new knowledge and skills were being developed so the pupils could change and adapt their wind turbines to get the most voltage and win the challenge.