International teamwork

Birkenhead School has set up a unique pilot multi-national project whereby teams of students from different countries work together to research solutions to problems.  

Living independently in a foreign country for two weeks also helps students develop their language and social skills, fosters greater self-reliance and promotes a deeper understanding of other cultures.  The first teams on the pilot were involved in science-based research but, because the idea has been so well-received, Mr Clark and Mr Hayward, the project instigators, want the programme to expand and to set up research teams in other subject areas, for example, Economics.

Featured on the front page of the Bridge, Unilever’s R&D site magazine, recently were Harry Sturgess and Edward Sherrard in the Lower Sixth, and Dominic Gargya from Germany and Pablo Zulet Spain.  They spent two weeks in the Unilever Research Labs in Port Sunlight last October looking at the extraction of substitute polymers from waste products to reduce the use of crude oil in a range of Unilever products.

Other students worked in similar multi-national teams - in the public health labs in Pamplona looking at contamination in foodstuffs and water supply, at the University of Pamplona looking at obesity and with Siemens, near Stuttgart, working on robotics. Those involved from Birkenhead were: Jack Granby, Neil Lawrence and Curtis Wright.

The School hopes to attract European Union funding to continue and expand this ground-breaking project.

Photo L to R:  Harry Sturgess, Edward Sherrard (Birkenhead School), Dominic Gargya (Geschwister-Scholl-Schule, Tübingen), Pablo Zulet (Colegio Santa Teresa, Pamplona)