Marine
The Big Bang
March 18, 2011 by michaelpenston 2 Comments | Category Marine Directorate general, Marine Directorate Science
Possibly not ‘The’ Big Bang, but that is what the event was called! Marine Scotland Science’s John Dunn recently went to London to the Excel centre in London’s Docklands as mentor for the lab’s Nuffield student of last year (Katie Forbes) at The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair (UK’s biggest single celebration of science and engineering for young people aims to celebrate and inspire them). To read more about the event and Katie’s recognition click on the link (blue text).
Report by John Dunn
Katie Forbes’ six week project on the sampling efficiency of plankton nets was carried out at Stonehaven on the 40 cm bongo nets, and flowmeters used there, and successfully produced correction factors for the flowmeters which are being used on the data.
Katie was awarded a gold award by the British Association for science, for her project when it was showcased at Surgeon’s Hall in Edinburgh in 2010. She was then invited to take part in the Big Bang event and competition, which attracts students from all over Great Britain.
Over three days she was visited by several judges (a mixture of scientists, mathematicians and engineers) all of which scored her report and interviewed her at length about the project. Other visitors included, the Duke of York, Roland Jackson, head of the British Association for Science, Vince Cable MP, Lord Sainsbury, and lecturers from various prestigious Universities, all of whom were captivated by Katie’s obvious enthusiasm and depth of knowledge.
Katie didn’t win but she did make it into the last ten, and even there the last five were only separated in some cases by a very fine margin, we later discovered.
On the last day she was visited by the head of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, and asked if she would represent Great Britain at a prestigious event in Stockholm, called Tomorrow’s water.
I was privileged to be one of her mentors along with Kathryn Cook and I hope that after she has been to University, Marine Scotland Science will be in a position to employ her considerable talents.
Well done Katie!
Tags: Big Bang, Ecosystem monitoring
RSS
Email
CREST would like to congratulate Katie Forbes on her success at the Tomorrows Water competition. – Well Done Katie 🙂 Good Luck in the Autumn
did you know that a team from lochgelly high won an award in the Young Engineers category. As well as a few others scots children too ?