Young visitors to UCOL get the drift

16 May 2013

Young visitors to UCOL get the drift

A group of year 7 and 8 Newbury School students visited UCOL’s Palmerston North campus yesterday to learn about how engines work, with the aim of building their own drift-kart.

The nine technically-minded students approached UCOL themselves after being given the mandate to decide who in the community they would need to talk with to gain the know-how to start building.

Newbury School Teacher Caroline Transom says the special project is intended to extend the year 7 and 8 students’ learning. “The students decided themselves that they would need to learn about how an engine works in order to make their kart go, and came up with the idea of contacting UCOL.

“It makes them feel really powerful to be able to contact an expert and then hear back.”

She says the visit fulfilled a work-based learning objective too, helping the students to consider potential career options. “I can talk to the students about their future options but there’s nothing like actually bringing them in to get them planning early.

“We expose them to a variety of career options, like dairy farming, the Airforce and the motor industry.”

UCOL Automotive Industries Head of School Maurice Filer, who started out as a motor mechanic at age 15 and has been with UCOL for nearly 30 years, showed the students around UCOL’s new Trades and Technology Centre.

He discussed with the students topics such as heat engines, the engine combustion process, the ‘4 stroke’ engine cycle, lubrication and cooling systems, as well as looking at the physical components of an engine.
Mr Filer says he was more than happy to host the students and impart his knowledge. “I’ve been working on motor vehicles and learning about them for over 40 years and I’m still learning.

“I genuinely believe we’ve got some fantastic training facilities here – I come to work every day to play and learn.

“Talking to these students actually made me realise just how much I enjoy my job.”

ENDS

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