Y12 engineering students have been working on an exciting six month project which has given them insight into the world of science, engineering and technology.

Y12 engineering students have been working on an exciting six month project which has given them insight into the world of science, engineering and technology and has lead to them being nominated for one of the highly prestigious, ‘Community Awards’ at the Cleveland Fire Service Awards Dinner which is to be held on 3rd July 2008.

The five Macmillan students and their teacher, Mrs Brathwaite, have been working with a professional engineer from Cleveland Fire Service as part of the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) scheme.  EES is a high quality work experience scheme which enables students to get hands on experience of engineering, design and research at a professional level and gain experience of problem solving, team working, presentation skills and project management.

The challenge that was posed to our students was a very real problem and one which is a particular problem within our local area.  Recently the Fire and Rescue service have been experiencing an increase in the number of wheelie bin fires.  This is putting extra pressure on the service and 1 appliance and 4 officers must attend each fire which means they are unavailable for other emergencies for a minimum of 35 minutes.  The Fire Service asked our team to conduct research into the problem and create the data and a report.  After completing this, they were faced with the next part of the brief, which was to try to reduce the number of wheelie bin fires occurring through the redesign of the existing bins.

The students’ report highlighted the number of effects caused by wheelie bin fires, which included a focus on the financial implications, from the cost to the Fire Service, to the householder and to the environmental problems that are being caused.  It is clear from this report that this is a major problem which needs to be tackled and our students were determined to ensure they came up with a new design that would help to reduce the number of fires and hence the damage caused.

Students spent three days at Newcastle University on a ‘residential’ visit in December 2007 where much of the planning and design took place, and they then worked on it in the Academy using the CAD facilities here.  Their designs were presented back at Newcastle University in April. 

The design solution was, as are all the greatest designs, very simple.  It involves some simple and cost-effective adjustments to the lid of the wheelie bins which would mean that the lids would automatically close and seal, cutting off the oxygen supply and thus putting out the fire.  Experiments were conducted at the fire training centre to prove that the design works and retooling costs have been researched.  The chief engineer would now like to present the students’ designs to wheelie bin manufacturers and to government.

Whilst undertaking this project, the danger of arson attacks on wheelie bins has been highlighted even further with the death of an elderly woman and hospitalisation of her husband here in Middlesbrough and with another arson attack causing £25,000 worth of damage when the wheelie bin fire spread to a car and building.  The work undertaken by our students could be highly significant in reducing the possibilities of such events.

Well done to the five students involved and congratulations to them on their nomination.  Keep checking this site for an update about the awards dinner presentations – fingers crossed!