Cub designers at Abbey Meadows Primary School build cardboard city at Cambridge LaunchPad event
Cambridge Regional College and Cambridge Cleantech also help students design renewable house.
More than 70 Year 5 students from Abbey Meadows Primary School were challenged to build a cardboard city or design a renewable house modelled from rubbish and recycling.
It was part of the outreach programme Cambridge LaunchPad, designed to drive interest in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. Co-ordinated by Form the Future CIC, the project is supported by the Cambridge Independent and many businesses.
The event brought together volunteers from Cambridge Cleantech and Cambridge Regional College for a fun-packed day about digital and green technology.
Each activity got the students thinking about energy consumption and creative ways to reduce it. The winning house design featured solar panels, a wind turbine and a rainwater collection system which fed into a swimming pool.
Cambridge Regional College also introduced the students to coding on Raspberry Pi computers, and drawing their own computer game characters.
Sam Goodall, international projects manager at Cambridge Cleantech, said: “It was a fantastic day, and inspiring to see the enthusiasm all the students showed for green technology in their building activities. This is what Cambridge Cleantech’s Greensoul project is all about, and it’s great to see it in action.”
Anna Aldred, STEM outreach and Cambridge LaunchPad project manager from Form the Future, said the day was the first of a new format for the programme.
She said: “From the feedback that the Abbey Meadows students, teachers and teaching assistants gave me, it is safe to say that the day was an overwhelming success!
“The interactive and hands-on activities allowed each and every student to let their curiosity, delight and individuality shine through.
“These activity sessions yielded some truly novel contributions from students, which makes me confident that the members of this generation of young scientists are going to grow up to be inspirational innovators.”
More information can be found at formthefuture.org.uk.
