A Teaching Resource for Sustainable Power Generation

The aim of this Partnerships for Public Engagement (PPE) project is to involve sixth form level students in dialogue over future power generation strategies. This will be achieved through the development of a set of teaching resources that will be used during a series of workshops. In these workshops the students will be invited to take the role of policymakers to decide how the UK should be generating its electricity in the future in order to satisfy projected demands and carbon reduction targets.The teaching resources will be built around an energy calculator, which will quantify the advantages and disadvantages of any form of power generation. For example, if a student decides to generate 50 per cent of the UK's power using nuclear fission the calculator will work out the additional number of power stations that need to be built, how much this will cost and the quantities of nuclear waste that will need to be stored. The results will also be presented graphically, for example with a map of the UK showing how many new power stations will be required.The workshops will introduce the different ways of generating electricity, their advantages, disadvantages and costs. The focus of the workshop will be a practical session where the students decide in small groups on a power generation strategy guided by the energy calculator. We may ask each small group to champion a preconceived strategy, or simply allow them to follow their own inclination. We will then ask each group to present their own solutions to the workshop. We will record each solution, and ask students to document their decision-making process, which will be compiled into a report at the end of the project. The workshop will finish with an evaluation session in which students and teachers will be asked to reflect on taking part in the workshop.This is a fascinating problem without a trivial solution. All methods of power generation have disadvantages and these disadvantages are often poorly appreciated by the public. Giving young people the opportunity to understand the issues facing the UK will encourage more of them to play a future role, and enable researchers, industry and policymakers to understand young people's views better. Sustainable energy generation is one today's most important issues and provides a unique opportunity for the scientific community to engage with the public.

The main beneficiaries of the project will be young people in post-16 education, their teachers, staff and students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and partners on the SUPERGEN consortium including other research institutions and industrial companies. Young people will benefit becasue they will be more engaged with energy policy, will feel they have the opportunity to influence debate and decision making and will understand more about the science and technology of energy production University academics, researchers and students will benefit through becoming more aware of social attitudes and concerns, valuing public engagement as an activity, developing skills in communicating with non-specialists, explaining complex ideas, working with young people, developing learning resources and listening to feedback from people outside their field.