Pupils have bottle for technology (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Pupils have bottle for technology

9:39am Tuesday 20th July 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

MORE than 1,500 empty plastic bottles were used to construct a recycled greenhouse by students as part of their school technology week.

Pupils learned how to be innovative and creative when they took part in tasks at Everest Community College in Oxford Way, Popley, including drawing murals on an outside brick wall and making high definition films.

Activities were arranged for the Year Seven, Eight and Nine pupils for the whole week, based around the theme of technology.

One group created a sustainable vegetable patch using plants donated from the Wyevale Garden Centre in Basingstoke.

Tom Finlayson, an English teacher at the Basingstoke school, said: “We are going to use seeds from the plants rather than go and buy more from the shops.

“There will be courgettes, lettuces and carrots.

“It’s really interesting to speak to the kids outside of the classroom because a lot of them are actually interested in gardening.”

Meanwhile, another group used fake blood, candle wax and paint to create realistic wounds on each other. Joe McCann, 14 from Winklebury, who had a fake gash on his arm, said: “I am meant to look as though I fell out of a window.

“We sponged the blood on and used fake blood around the wound and wax to make it look like a cut. It’s awesome.”

Outside, learners designed and made animal homes for field mice and bees, which were hidden in undergrowth next to a pond in the school grounds.

One group of pupils designed a cyber café for Basingstoke’s Festival Place shopping centre, working with Andy Pritchard, the architect who designed the Everest school.

Christina Newsham, the teacher who co-ordinated the technology week, said: “It’s not often architects get to come back to the building and engage with the people it’s been designed for.

“He was interested in how all the space was being used and helped the pupils design the café for 100 years in the future.

“We have had a whole range of activities going on and the pupils have really enjoyed them.”