Festival Events 2009

Engineering Week	Charles Darwin Lectures	St Brides Bay	Pembroke School
Planetarium	Damsel and Dragonflies	Dutch Students	Climate Change Display	MHPA
Welston Challenge	Charles Darwin and Art	From River to Tap	Stepaside Energy Day	Lobster

From River to Tap

Schools and community groups travel to the Western Cleddau starting their journey to discover how water finds its way from the river to their taps.

This field trip enables us to discover how water finds its way to our taps. A surprising amount of work goes into making sure our water is safe to drink.

 

 

 

 

 

The visit includes a tour around the abstraction centre and treatment site. The children learn how much work goes into cleaning our water so that it is safe to drink.

This is the perfect start for a workshop back at the classroom which discusses the water cycle, the importance of water and ways to try to make this vital resource sustainable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year we have taken the Priory Unit, a home education group and Milford Haven senior citizens, as well as a number of schools.

 

 

 

If you would like your group to have this opportunity please get in touch with us.
Sponsored by PCNPA's Sustainable Development Fund.

 

 

St Brides Bay

Three summer clubs, made up of children between 5-16, spent the day on the Pembrokeshire coast, rock pooling and learning about the natural history of the area. The Alice McCosh trust were really pleased with the event.

 

 

 

The children learnt about the rocky shore environment and enjoyed exploring the rockpools, finding prawns, crabs and fish.

 

 

Damsel and Dragonflies
The public came to Bryn Berian with Peter Brown to look for Damsel and Dragonflies. We saw adults and nymphs which live for up to 6years in streams.

If you click on the photo it will take you to a Flash Photo Slideshow of the day.

Planetarium
A giant planetarium was brought to Pembrokeshire and toured several schools, bringing the universe right into the children's school halls! The planetarium looks deceptively small in this picture, it is actually 3.5m tall and can hold 40 pupils!

 

Pupils aged from 5 to 11 enjoyed the spectacular scenery of constellations and planets.

 

Photos by Gareth Davies

Charles Darwin and Art
This year we had a number of artistic events inspired by science. Gwen and Bob, professional artists, visited Pembrokeshire to take inspiration from Pembrokeshire and consider Charles Darwin's voyage.

To celebrate Charles Darwin's bicentenary, St Francis School took part in a drawing and printing day. They first learn about Charles Darwin and then had the chance to study natural objects and draw them. The pictures were turned into striking prints.

 

 

 

Tenby and Tasker High Schools took part in all-day art sessions at Welston Court.

 

 

The students were first reminded of the variety of techniques they could use, including charcoal, pencil, ink, scissors and paint.

 

 

 

 

 

The weather stayed mostly dry and sunny and the students were able to go out into the grounds and draw their natural surroundings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lobster
A giant lobster was found by a local fisherman and brought to Pembrokeshire College. It was housed in an aquarium just outside our office, before being transported to Sea Trust's Oceanarium in Fishguard.

Climate Change Display
Glamorgan University kindly loaned their climate change display to Pembrokeshire College. This has previously been exhibited in the Cardiff Museum and was well received here.

Dutch Students
Students from Van Der Hall Institute in the Netherlands visit Pembrokeshire as an annual event to study our coastline which is vastly different from theirs. This year we organised a visit to Dragon LNG to see the site. The students considered the impacts on the coast from important industries and heard about the strategies employed by Dragon to protect the environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stepaside Energy Day
Stepaside School visited the labs at Pembrokeshire college for an exciting day of hands on workshops. The school had been studying energy for the curriculum and we helped out by showing them energy in sound, movement, light and even, chemical explosions!

Charles Darwin Lectures
To celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birthday Professor Tony Campbell gave a series of lectures throughout the year. These were well attended and thoroughly enjoyed.

We hope to be able to put on a few lectures each year.

 

 

Pembroke School
Pembroke High School brought their year 7 and 9 pupils to Pembrokeshire College for a day of science in the labs and a rockpooling session at St Brides Bay.

Welston Challenge
Three schools attended the annual Welston Challenge. Manorbier, St Florence and Sageston competed for the best science prize at Welston Court.

 

 

 

 

 

They took part in pond dipping, woodland walk, bioluminescence experiments and microscopy.

 

St Florence took the prize this year for being most on-task, all the activity leaders agreed that their group asked the most interesting questions and were the most involved. All the schools involved had a fantastic time and we thoroughly enjoyed showing them different types of science. Many thanks to Tony and Stephanie for hosting the event at their home.

 

 

Professional artists Bob and Gwen stayed for this event and at the end all the children were involved in a big group art project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Milford Haven Port Authority Waterway Project
The Milford Haven Port Authority sponsored a 3 day event for 3 schools investigating the waterway. The trip focussed on the geology of the area and also explored the activities and wildlife that use the waterway.

 

 

 

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Pictures by Gareth Davies

Engineering Week
During the BA Science and Engineering Week five schools took part in an exciting engineering field trip and workshop sponsored by Aker Solutions. The five schools involved, had a trip to Carew tidal mill to look at solutions to engineering problems in the past. This led on to a discussion on renewable energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at school the pupils, in small groups, built there own water wheel. Lots of discussion took place on the best size and shape for the paddles and how the water should be poured on. A paddling pool was set up and the children were able to try out their water wheels!

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures by Gareth Davies

Genetics Lecture

A talk on evolution and genetics by Steve Morris

Darwin Centre Hosts Climate Event
An exciting opportunity for friends of the Darwin Centre to listen to specialist scientists discuss climate change. Lord Julian Hunt, is Emeritus Professor of Climate Modelling in the Department of Earth Sciences and Honorary Professor of Mathematics at University College London he came to discuss his views on climate change. Professor Tavi Murray is a glaciologisy at Swansea University and is studying the impacts of glacier melt on sea level rise. She came to tell us of the supercomputer based in Pembroke, which is modelling climate change to try to predict the future.