As part of our commitment to support educational initiatives, Apollo recently visited a local primary school to support a key element of their curriculum this year, looking at sustainability and sustainable energy.
Our Managing Director, Ryan Menzies and Graduate Mechanical Engineer Mario Bovero, thoroughly enjoyed an interactive session at a local primary school exploring what sustainability means with the class, why it is important, what climate change means, what impact it is having and what we can do as individuals to make the world we live in a better place.
So big topics and it was inspiring to listen to their thoughts around this – they were really interested and we got a good quizzing on what things Apollo is doing in this space and to also make the world a better place!
We had a particular focus with the class on offshore renewable energy and had great fun reviewing their multiple designs for floating offshore wind turbines in our “test tank” – otherwise known as a very large Tupperware container.
The designs were impressive and showed how the teams had identified and considered stability and anchoring as a key challenge. Some devices worked great, others turned into tidal turbines unexpectedly!
But fun was had, lots was learned by all, and it was great to see an excited class getting to grips with some of the challenges facing the offshore renewables sector. Our wee wave tank simulated the challenges of the North Sea nicely, and the calculations by our integrity team proved to be correct with no catastrophic tank failure!!
We rounded off with a bit of a Q&A, a quiz, some prizes, and we showed them our simple wave energy device in our test tank and how it can generate REAL electricity, which also generated a lot of excitement. Finally, we gave a demo of our 3D printed PALM ™ quick connect/disconnect mechanical and electrical connector that we are developing for the offshore renewables market with support from Wave Energy Scotland (more on the progress of that soon as it advances through stages towards commercialisation).
Thanks to the pupils and teachers of the local primary school for being so accommodating. Hopefully, there are a few budding engineering, designers, or energy advisors in the making! We certainly had great fun!
We continue to do all we can to promote STEM subjects and sustainability in schools across the UK.
If anyone would like to know more or know a school that would benefit from our roadshow please get in touch on info@apollo-oe.com