Section 2

Leader:       Hello everyone. I’ve been asked to talk to you this afternoon about next month’s trip to Tamerton Study Centre for the two-week course. Now some of the things I’m going say you may have already heard or read about ... but I think it’s important to emphasise a few key points.

First of all, it’s worth reminding you why Tamerton was set up in the first place ... in the late nineteen sixties. That was really before all the concern with preserving the environment which everyone talks about these days. The idea was simply to get people out of the cities and into the country and to find out that just being outdoors can be very rewarding.

This is not going to be a holiday in the usual sense. It’s called an adventure course because you’ll really be stretched to your limits but that in itself can be a positive thing. The group I took last year, for example, said that although they actually felt pretty weak and exhausted all the time, it really made them learn a lot about themselves and increased their confidence ... and in the end that’s the most important thing.

Now all of you knew about policies at Tamerton before you signed up for it, so you know that in many ways it’s quite old fashioned - you don’t have a lot of choice in what you do. But something which I think makes the place so special is that you get to try so many different things, every day. For instance, one day you’ll do climbing and the next you’ll be surveying rock pools. It’s not intended that you become an expert in any of them ... it’s more like a taster, which you can follow up if you want.

And there isn’t a lot of free time ... organised activities and talks, etc. go on until nine p.m. and lights go out at eleven p.m. There are table tennis tables, with all the equipment, and board games, though I have to say the pieces often go missing so it’s a good idea to take your own. There’s a DVD player with a good selection of films suitable for this age group so don’t take yours.

Bed-time at eleven p.m. is strictly enforced ... and there’s a good reason for this. You’re all under eighteen and we organisers need to know that all group members are accounted for in the house as we close for the night. And of course you’ll be so exhausted anyway that you’ll be too sleepy to want to cause any trouble. 

Leader:       Now, what should you pack? The information sheet tells you a lot about what clothing to bring ... but what about other things? Well, Tamerton House has its own small shop, but anything bigger is several miles away so you won’t have many opportunities for buying supplies. So in this last part of my talk, I’m going to explain what objects you should take with you to the Centre, what you can take if you want and also, very importantly, what you cannot take.

Several of you came up to me before this talk and asked whether you can take things like kettles, or hairdryers. The answer is, there are plenty of these electrical appliances available in the Centre and they are of the proper voltage and are checked regularly. Yours may not be, so the rules at Tamerton say you can’t bring them into the Centre ... because it’s considered a fire risk ... remember it’s a very old house. Now, another question was about cell phones. Although you definitely can’t have them on during inside talks, you equally definitely need them when you’re out on exercises ... so they’re a must, I’m afraid. Anybody who wishes to talk to me about borrowing a phone for the fortnight, please see me after this talk.

Now, the weather’s heating up at the moment and you’ll be outdoors a great deal. If you wear proper clothing, especially a hat, sun cream is optional. Also they sell high-factor cream in the shop so you don’t have to take any of your own, unless there’s a special kind you use. Now there’s a special note about things like deodorants which come in aerosol cans - I need to tell you that these are banned in the Centre because apparently they have the habit of setting off the fire alarms. If you want to take an aerosol can, you’ll actually be at risk of being told to leave.

And finally, people having been asking about whether they need to take towels. Well, the Centre does provide one towel per guest, which you’re required to wash yourself. If you’re happy with that then don’t bring another. If not, take one of your own. Just remember how much outdoor exercise you’ll be doing ... and how dirty and wet you’ll be getting ...

Section 3

Hello Eve, come in and sit down ... How’s it going?

Fine thanks. I’m looking forward to my teaching practice next week.

Good. Now you’ve got two classes, haven’t you - Year 3 and Year 6. Have you done your lesson plans?

Well, I’ve decided to take the topic of renewable energy ... I haven’t done a lesson plan for Year six yet, but I thought I’d base their lesson on an example of very simple technology. So I’ve brought this diagram to show you ... I got it from the Internet.

Let’s see ... A biogas plant ... So this is equipment for producing fuel from organic waste?

Yes. The smaller container on the left is where you put the waste you’ve collected ...

Right, and from there it’s piped into the larger tank?

That’s right. And that’s slurry on the base of the larger tank.

Right ... and what exactly is slurry?

It’s a mixture of organic waste and water.

So is that pipe at the bottom where the water comes in?

Yes it is ... As the slurry mixture digests it produces gas, and that rises to the top of the dome. Then when it’s needed it can be piped off for use as fuel in homes or factories. It’s very simple.

I suppose there’s some kind of safety valve to prevent pressure build-up?

That’s the overflow tank. That container on the right. As the slurry expands some of it flows into that, and then once some of the gas has been piped off, the slurry level goes down again and the overflow tank empties again.

I see. Well I think that’s suitably simple for the age level it’s for. I look forward to seeing the whole lesson plan.

Thanks. And can I show you my ideas for the Year three lesson?

Of course. Let’s look.

I thought I’d introduce the topic by writing the word ‘energy’ on the board, and reinforcing the spelling and the pronunciation. Then I’ll do a little mime - you know, run on the spot or something - to convey the sense.

I’d keep it brief at this stage ...

Yes, I will. Then I’ll wipe the word off and write the question ‘Where does energy come from?’, and see what the pupils come up with.

Fine. I’d suggest that you just brainstorm at this stage, and don’t reject any of their suggestions.

Yes, that’s what I was going to do ... Then I’ve produced a set of simple statements, like ‘Energy makes cars move along the road’, and ‘Energy makes our bodies grow’. There are eight altogether.

Are you going to give them out as a handout? Or write them up on the board?

First, I’ll put them on the board, and then I’ll read them out loud. And I’ll get the pupils to copy them out in their note books. I’ll also ask them to think up one more similar statement by themselves, and add it to the list.

Good idea.

Eve:             After that I thought I’d vary things a bit by sticking some pictures up ... of things like the sun and plants and food, and petrol, and a running child. And I’ll get the pupils to work out what order the pictures should come in, in terms of the energy chain.

Tutor:          I think that’s a very good idea. You could move the pictures around as the pupils give you directions.

Eve:             Yes, I think they’d enjoy that. And to finish off I’ve made a gap-fill exercise to give out.

They’ll be doing that individually, and while they’re writing I’ll walk round and check their work.

Tutor:          Good ... And have you worked out the timing of all that? It’ll probably take you right through to the end of the .

Section 4

In my talk today I’ll be exploring the idea of artificial gills. I’ll start by introducing the concept, giving some background and so forth and then I’ll go on to explain the technological applications, including a short, very simple, experiment I conducted.

Starting with the background ... As everyone knows, all living creatures need oxygen to live. Mammals take in oxygen from the atmosphere by using their lungs, and fishes take oxygen from water by means of their gills, which of course in most fishes are located either side of their head.

But human beings have always dreamt of being able to swim underwater like the fishes, breathing without the help of oxygen tanks. I don’t know whether any of you have done any scuba diving but it’s a real pain having to use all that equipment. You need special training, and it’s generally agreed that tanks are too heavy and big to enable most people to move and work comfortably underwater. So scientists are trying a different tack: rather than humans carrying an oxygen supply as they go underwater, wouldn’t it possible to extract oxygen in situ, that is, directly from the water, whilst swimming?

In the nineteen sixties the famous underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, for example, predicted that one day surgery could be used to equip humans with gills. He believed our lungs could be bypassed and we would learn to live underwater just as naturally as we live on land. But of course, most of us would prefer not to go to such extremes.

I’ve been looking at some fairly simple technologies developed to extract oxygen from water - ways to produce a simple, practical artificial gill enabling humans to live and breathe in water without harm. Now, how scientists and inventors went about this was to look at the way different animals handled this - fairly obviously they looked at the way fishes breathe but also how they move down and float up to the surface using inflatable sacs, called swim bladders. Scientists also looked at animals without gills, which use bubbles of air underwater, notably beetles. These insects contrive to stay underwater for long periods by breathing from this bubble which they hold under their wing cases.

By looking at these animal adaptations, inventors began to come up with their own ‘artificial gills’. Now making a crude gill is actually rather easy - more straightforward than you would think. You take a watertight box ... which is made of a material which is permeable to gas, that is, it allows it to pass through, inwards and outwards. You then fill this with air, fix it to the diver’s face and go down underwater. But a crucial factor is that the diver has to keep the water moving, so that water high in oxygen is always in contact with the gill, so he can’t really stay still. And to maximise this contact it’s necessary for your gill to have a big surface area. Different gill designers have addressed this problem in different ways but many choose to use a network or lattice-arrangement of tiny tubes as part of their artificial gills. Then the diver is able to breathe in and out - oxygen from the water passes through the outer walls of the gill and carbon-dioxide is expelled. In a nut-shell, that’s how the artificial gill works.

So, having read about these simple gill mechanisms, I decided to create my own. I followed the procedure I’ve just described and it worked pretty well when I tried it out in the swimming pool ... I lasted underwater for nearly forty minutes! However, I’ve read about other people breathing through their gill for several hours.

So the basic idea works well, but the real limitation is that these simple gills don’t work as the diver descends to any great depth because the pressure builds and a whole different set of problems are caused by that ... Research is being done into how these problems might be overcome . but that’s another story which has to be the subject of another talk!

Despite this serious limitation, many people have high hopes for the artificial gill and they think it might have applications beyond simply enabling an individual to stay underwater for a length of time. For example, the same technology might be used to provide oxygen for submarines ... enabling them to stay submerged for months on end without resorting to potentially dangerous technologies such as nuclear power. Another idea is to use oxygen derived from the water as energy for fuel cells. These could power machinery underwater, such as robotic devices ...

So, in my view, this is an area of technology with great potential. Now, if anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to answer ...