Bee-ing Inspired by Engineering
As part of our Future and Careers programme, students at Manchester High School for Girls are given the opportunity to learn about a diverse range of industries and vocations. During their Junior 6 year, they are encouraged to apply for the Engineering Education Scheme run by EDT (Engineering Development Trust) which sees a team of six students from school working on a project with an engineering company.
Last academic year, Chloe, Beatrice, Shahd, Julia, Jasmine and Judy were chosen to represent MHSG. Together they went to the University of Liverpool for an induction day that taught them key professional skills including communications and project management and introduced them to their partner engineering company SUEZ Recycling and Recovery.
Over the course of the scheme, the girls visited one of the SUEZ recycling plants at Teesside where they were able to further research the company’s requirements and start planning their engineering work at a pre-COVID University of Liverpool residential. Here the team carried out a range of experiments to investigate how to monitor bees entering and leaving a hive in an attempt to draw a correlation between potential pollution and bee activity throughout the year.
SUEZ provided all the necessary materials to help the students create a device that would successfully monitor the population of bees from a hive in order to assist them in assessing air quality around the Teesside plant. Shahd was grateful for all their support and said, “Our mentors from Suez were incredibly helpful throughout the project, providing guidance on practices, and we enjoyed working with them.”
Sadly, COVID-19 meant they were unable to present their findings to a team of professionals but nonetheless it was a valuable opportunity for those students considering a career in Engineering.
Sixth former, Beatrice said, “It gave us the opportunity to work on a real problem with full-time engineers and to appreciate the challenges of working in a team to tight deadlines.”
Chloe added, “It has been an invaluable experience for us to engage our creativity and work towards an end goal.”
The team were confident that their final concept would work successfully and have now received their certificates to acknowledge all their hard work. As they leave Manchester High to move on to the next stage of their educational journey, the sixth formers will be passing the baton on to the next team of budding engineers at the School.
