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Primary Engineer: Fish-friendly collection of floating rubbish


Highfield Campus

Building: 38 | Staff Club

Room: Garden Court

Age suitable for:
  • All ages


Accessibility alert:
  • Tactile activities for visually impaired
Visit:     



Primary Engineer asks primary school pupils, 'If you were an engineer, what would you do?'
Amongst thousands of ideas submitted in 2024-25, several pupils across the South region proposed concepts for collecting waterborne waste items to avoid pollution and enable recycling.
Find out about the Primary Engineer competition (leaflet available) through meeting final year undergraduate engineering students who were inspired by a primary pupil's concept to design a waterborne waste collecting boat. You can also learn about design projects as part of an engineering degree.
Can waste be removed from a river without impeding fish, before it reaches the sea?
Our hands-on challenge: Try directing floating waste items (provided) into the collecting target using only bubbles - how many items can your bubble barrier help to collect while (toy) fish pass safely through?