News
Exciting News: ESC-Live Coming Soon!
11th December 2020
We are absolutely thrilled to have been awarded one of a limited number of £15,000 grants by the Engineering Education Grant Scheme (EEGS), for our project “ESC-Live: Virtual, out-of-the classroom events connecting school children with engineers”, which will be on the theme of Energy and Waste.
The Engineering Education Grant Scheme, which is run by the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, aims to engage young people aged 4-19 in learning about engineering and to develop the professional skills of those involved in supporting Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning and careers awareness.
Organisations capable of developing and delivering UK-based educational activities are eligible to apply to the EEGS scheme. There are two levels of funding available. Awards of up to £5,000 are available for standard applications to the fund, and a limited number of awards up to £15,000 are available each year.
Click here to read more about the project
ESC Live is an exciting new way to get students virtually out of the classroom, via a live, interactive documentary-style experience. In this project, we will visit a range of organisations across the South West on the theme of Energy and Waste, transmitting these visits live to mainly disadvantaged schools in the local area, taking questions from students to direct our investigations. We will visit engineers in industry and Universities; wind and solar farms; wave and tidal research sites; geothermal, anaerobic digestion, energy-from-waste and nuclear power plants. ESC Live uses innovative mobile journalism techniques which can be transmitted live over the internet from almost any location. This immersive and interactive experience should make students feel like they are there in the labs or on-site, without the current difficulties of a conventional field trip.
In these educational events, the students will learn about the science and technology behind current and future innovations in the Energy and Waste industries, and understand the important and varied roles of engineers in these endeavours. The South West is a hub for energy innovation, being the birthplace of industrial energy, now the home of pioneering work in renewable energy engineering. This will be a unique and impactful way for students to “meet” the experts in their region, and be inspired by their work and enthusiasm for making a difference in society. To ensure an even broader reach, we will produce short, informative and engaging YouTube videos for the general public which summarise each visit.
We will be working with our advisor and distinguished former BBC science producer Robin Mudge to produce the events, and award-winning lecturer Dr Adam Feldman from the University of Exeter’s Renewable Energy Department in Penryn, who will guide the project overall with his wide-ranging expertise in engaging teaching and renewable energy engineering. We can’t wait to start this exciting project in the New Year – follow us for updates!