Hey Blog! Last Thursday I went to an amazing event which is only the start of what looks to be a very interesting project!
The Midlands Makers Challenge is an initiative which has run for a few years now, with the aim of getting young people to think about climate (in)action and come up with solutions for problems. Of course, this is something that sounded absolutely great for me, and so Mum managed to orchestrate two teams to get together. Mum has a lot of experience at doing this – she set up the Eco Group a few years ago, and this is a new opportunity for the members, and also a few new people. It will take a long time, as it has a lot of aspects to it, but to start, we had a day out to get to know the brief, the challenge, and some more about everything.
There are hopefully two home ed teams, I don’t know which team I am in yet due to people dropping out at the last minute. Both teams came to the event in Derby, one of the places where the challenge is based. Unfortunately, the Silk Mill (or Museum of Making) where it is being run from, got flooded in the latest episode of flooding, along with Dad’s work and some of the rest of Derby. This has resulted in the first day with the project organisers being in the Museum and Art Gallery. Still, it was a very enjoyable day.
We had to go in early because there was not enough time after my Environmental Management class to get into Derby on time. Therefore, I had to do the class in Derby. The one remotely interesting outcome of this was that I decided I am never going to wear ear buds again! But after this it was quick march to the Museum. Almost everyone else was there, so we then went round to the room it was happening in. There were three tables, for the two teams and the parents, and after sitting down we did the first thing on the list. This was to make an animal out of plasticine. The team I was in made a creature with a Peregrine Falcon head, Cheetah body, Pig tail, and Pangolin feet. If you’ve never heard of a pangolin, it isn’t because it’s a made-up creature, the pangolin is the only scaled mammal in the world, the most illegally trafficked mammal in the world (their scales are sold for traditional medicine) and one of the cutest animals on the planet! They’re one of my favourite animals, but a friend who also likes them suggested the feet idea, not me. The animal challenge was just a warm up, so we soon got into the thick of things…
After a very nice lunch, we got to the brief. We were told the background for the challenge and further information, and were asked to try and design something to solve a water-related problem. My team made an entire river valley, with a beaver dam at the top, a water diverter, a reservoir and a pump to lift the water – all out of a few random materials on a table. This was a representation, not a prototype. One team made a sponge, out of a single square block, which would be put into pavements to soak up the water when it rained, then release it slowly when the flood went down. Quite clever – they didn’t have to make anything at all!
After this step, we put down what we thought about climate change. For some reason, most of my friends don’t like speaking out at events like this, so I was left to explain everything we did. This wasn’t a problem for me, and I did quite a good speech at this point, on climate change. Afterwards, I regretted not recording it, but perhaps I’m not quite as eloquent as Chris Packham yet! Once we had done this, we had a think about the UN sustainable development goals, and then reworked our former designs. There are 17 of the goals in total, of which two directly relate to water and most of the others are in some way linked to it. ‘Life Below Water’ and ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ both were contemplated, and while we do not yet know what we are doing for our final project, as this will take time and thought to complete, we have got some ideas. For example, giant dehumidifiers, water-recycling showers, astronaut toilets and a water-powered car were all discussed. My team added a water-recycling shower in a small house along the valley we had made earlier. This might be our final design, or it could be something else entirely. Either way, I know this project is going to be fun!