A team of Physics students from a Surrey school have undertaken their very own Poseidon adventure, using components and parts sourced from Rapid.
Sutton Grammar School’s POSEIDON project – the Pursuit of Scientific Evidence Investigating Details of the Ocean Naviface – has seen GCSE pupils design, build and launch a communication buoy into the North Sea, in an attempt to measure ocean wave amplitude and wavelength. The primary application of the system is to provide data relating to the presence of oil in the water, giving oil companies the chance to respond quickly and effectively to spillages. The project has helped the school reach the final of the 2012-13 Rolls-Royce Science Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in science education.
The buoy, named ‘Kraken’ after the mythical nautical monster, communicates its position and collects environmental data by GPS and radio technology. The buoy contains an Arduino board and a GPS module, which have been programmed to communicate with each other using the programming language C. The electronic components and circuitry is protected from the water by a housing of expanding foam and gravel and a fibreglass shell. The ‘Kraken’ was launched by the team (pictured above) in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk on April 7
th and travelled for around a week in a westerly direction back towards the coast.
This was a trial run for a more ambitious launch planned for later this month, when the second version of the ‘Kraken’ will be launched on the Extended Ellett line, a section of the North-West Atlantic between the Western Isles of Scotland and southern Iceland regularly used in oceanographic research. It is expected the buoy will drift towards Iceland for several months.
"This project has been brilliant for the pupils", said Steve Cox, leader of the Poseidon project and Jamie Costello, Head of Physics at Sutton Grammar School. "It has developed their understanding of electronics but also encouraged them to be independent in their studies and research. Once these skills have been learnt through electronics, the pupils can use them in other curriculum areas."
"Softer skills such as teamwork, time management and communication were also advanced such that the team act more like a small company!"
www.poseidon.sgsphysics.co.uk