Tarbolton Primary School
Project: Don't Go with the Flow
Our primary school is located in a small rural village overlooking the Firth of Clyde in South Ayrshire. We have been a Green Flag school for 15 years and boast outstanding practice in outdoor learning where we use every space in our village to teach and learn about our natural environment.
The whole community is closely knitted around our learning campus and our inter-generational collaboration benefits every individual. Our village is surrounded by agricultural fields but also shelters a beautiful woodland where pupils go to play and learn about biodiversity, life cycles, and conservation. A small river crosses the woods and also offers abundant STEM learning opportunities.
In recent years, local residents and pupils have noticed an increase in the amount of litter alongside our roads and riverbanks. The Eco Group has always been heavily involved in addressing the issues of litter around the village. When offered to participate in this STEM the Flow competition, our pupils did not hesitate in wanting to delve deeper into learning about, and take action towards, the issue of litter in our village.
We started by doing an extensive litter pick around the campus and village and identified the source of the litter and its final destination. We concluded that most of the village litter came from purchased goods in the food and recreational categories.
So we decided to genuinely address the issue at source and engaged in discussions around how we are the source.
With this in mind, pupils voiced their wanting to cooperate with the rest of villagers to raise awareness on reducing our consumption of certain goods in shops. Our young people created awareness posters giving information on how to reduce their purchase of some goods and reuse some others. They then went around the different shop keepers in the village and collaboratively worked to expand their understanding of the impact of single-use plastic goods.
Scientific Poster
Their solution to marine litter is Toby the Turtle. This is a device which will operate on land and water to collect litter. A vacuum picks up the litter. For larger pieces of litter, a ‘tongue’ will operate to scoop the litter into the collection box. A GPS tracker monitors the location of the device. When full, the device sends a signal to an app with its location so that it can be emptied. Cameras on the front of the device will help to prevent it from being vandalised. The device is a hybrid of solar power with battery back-up.
The Eco Group has always been heavily involved in addressing the issues of litter around the village. When offered to participate in this STEM the Flow competition, our pupils did not hesitate in wanting to delve deeper into learning about, and take action towards, the issue of litter in our village.