Go4SET is a UK wide educational programme allowing secondary school pupils to work with organisations to address issues of sustainability and engineering/science awareness.
School teams from Moray attended Moray College on Wednesday 8th February to compete in the Go4SET Celebration and Assessment Day (CAD). The judges selected Lossiemouth High School’s all girl team as the winner of the Best Overall Project Award for their outstanding work on the use of biomass as a source of renewable energy and the team were presented with a trophy and a cheque for £250 by Howie Firth, Director Orkney Science Festival. The team will now go forward to the Go4SET Scottish Final which will be held in the Scottish Parliament in May.
Lossiemouth High School were supported by Diageo during the project and their mentor Barry Paterson commented “To see the team come together, the effort that the team put into their report and presentation, to see how they conducted themselves in front of the judges, brings together all the reasons why I continue to work within the Go4Set programme and illustrates Diageo values through the support I receive to be a STEM ambassador.”
The Moray CAD event and awards were sponsored by Viridor and Martin Grey, Scottish Communications Manager commented; from wind farms to waste management, how we create a sustainable Scotland is rightly the subject of intense debate. As Scotland’s leading recycling, renewable energy and sustainable waste partner working with 96% of local authorities that is a debate we are keen to encourage. It’s for that reason we are delighted to support the Go4SET programme in Moray and across Scotland, challenging young people to think about their environment and future. “Like Viridor, young people in Moray are committed to their environment and conscious of how they utilise resources. The standard of entries was again very high and I congratulate the young people on their work. With talented young people like those in Moray, Scotland’s future is sure to be bright.”
The Go4SET biomass project began at the launch event in November 2011 and the teams of six 12 to 14 year olds (S2) continued to work with their teacher and mentors from industry on the challenging 10-week project. They were tasked to research a biomass fuelled renewable electricity and heat plant for their school and provide a written report on their findings, produce a model and display these at the celebration event.
At the event the students demonstrated their individual projects and models to a group of assessors and discussed their projects with guests attending the event. The other award winners at the event were Speyside High School Team 1 supported by William Grant & Sons who won the Best Team Work Award and were presented with a cheque for £100 the team also won the Students Choice Award
Duncan McSporran, EDT Director for Scotland commented “This dynamic and innovative curriculum based programme has proved to significantly change the perception of young people on careers and opportunities within science and engineering industries.”
