The science behind maritime history

Our work with the 1851 Trust is bringing the treasure trove of marine archives in Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s Heritage and Education Centre (HEC) to a wider audience. The Trust is a dynamic educational charity which works alongside the British America’s Cup team INEOS UK. It is using HEC materials as part of its STEM Crew online resource, and in its Next Generation roadshows taking place between 2019 and 2021 with support from a Foundation grant. The roadshows combine hands-on marine engineering and science with real-life experience of sailing.

By incorporating HEC resources in STEM Crew, the 1851 Trust’s free, digital education programme for 11-16 year olds, our grant is bringing them to a young audience. STEM Crew resources have been used in classrooms to teach over 150,000 young people in 2020.

STEM Crew uses stories from the HEC archive in interactive, curriculum-linked and relevant workshops and online resources that illustrate the links between archives, engineering innovation and contemporary global issues. For example, they’re using historic yacht blueprints and classifications to create teaching resources that are available, free of charge, to schools around the world.

“This enables us to put a real-life context into the curriculum,” said Bev Smith from the Trust’s Education Team. “By doing so, we are not only able to give exposure to these wonderful archives held by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, we are also to give teachers a really exciting resource to use in the classroom.”

The Foundation is also supporting three series of the Next Generation Roadshow, targeted at 11-14 year olds living in disadvantaged areas of the UK. Inspired by INEOS UK, the British America’s Cup team captained by Sir Ben Ainslie, the roadshows are an exciting blend of sailing and hands-on marine engineering in the classroom. Roadshow workshops will then be developed into online educational resources on the STEM Crew portal, bringing the contents of the HEC within reach of students across the globe.

The roadshows are giving young people from areas of deprivation hands-on experience of STEM activities related to the sea, including designing micro race boats using yacht plans from the HEC archive. Students also get the chance to take their learning and apply it on the  water, experiencing sailing for themselves and bringing the marine science and engineering they have studied to life. Roadshows have been held across the UK, from Plymouth and Cardiff, to Leeds, Liverpool and Loughborough.

Leeds East Academy, based in one of the 5% most deprived areas in the UK, took part in a roadshow at Leeds Activity Centre, Yeadon Tarn, in September 2019. David Flowers, the Trust’s Education Manager, described what happened:

“Having made their own wind turbine, the students then applied it by looking at how a sail works on a boat.”

Teacher Stef Precious said: “It was really interesting to see what they learned in the classroom being put into practice in sailing! This is something they wouldn’t usually do... it’s really exciting for us to be able to give them these opportunities.”