BRIGHT young pupils from Millom have participated in an interactive learning campaign, sparking their interest in low carbon electricity.
Some 150 Year Eight and Year Nine pupils from five schools took part in the launch of this year's Bright Sparks campaign organised by the nuclear company NuGen.
The event ran over three days and was held at the Moorside Information Centre at Whitehaven Civic Hall.
Pupils from Millom School were joined by others from St Benedict’s, Whitehaven Academy, Workington Academy, and St Joseph’s following on the success of last year's campaign.
Science presenter Ross Exton brought the history and the future of electricity to life for the students who took part in an assortment of hands-on experiments and engineering challenges.
This included an immersive 3D interactive tour of NuGen’s proposed Moorside Power Station for a site near Sellafield.
John Male, NuGen’s head of training and development, said: “The schools have been very supportive of our programme, and the students definitely followed suit.
"We were absolutely delighted with their enthusiasm and attitude to learning.”
Throughout the rest of the academic year, students will be taking part in field visits and special lessons supported by NuGen.
This will allow them to discover the different ways of producing electricity and learn about how electricity is used and the importance of reducing carbon emissions to protect the future of the planet.
The students will also work on a Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) related project, the findings of which will be presented at the end of the year during the Bright Sparks Schools’ Energy Conference.
Participating students could also attain a prestigious Crest Silver award for their efforts.
The Crest Awards scheme is the British Science Association’s flagship programme for young people, providing science enrichment activities to inspire and engage five-to-19-year-olds.
It is the only nationally-recognised accreditation scheme for project work in Stem subjects and in this year participating schools will receive £600.
Mr Male added: “NuGen wants to support what the schools already do, providing relevant and enriching experiences for their students and complementing the schools’ delivery of the national curriculum.
"For NuGen, Bright Sparks helps us to forge a strong link with the schools close to Moorside.
"This will be really important when we start to build our west Cumbrian workforce with as much home-grown talent as possible.”
NuGen is a UK nuclear company owned by Toshiba and Engie.
When fully operational, the planned Moorside reactors will have a combined capacity of up to 3.8GW gross, enough to power up to six million homes.
The first of the three reactors is targeted to come online in the mid-2020s, creating thousands of skilled jobs over the next decade and significantly boosting the local, regional and national economies.
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