Community & Business
31 March, 2022
Millmerran students lap up water workshop
Students from Millmerran State School had the chance to absorb new knowledge in water management during the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy’s (QMEA) Water – Yours, Ours, Mine workshop.
Sponsored by Millmerran Power, the workshop took principles from the national science and geography curriculum for Year 7 and explored how the resources and energy sector treats and manages water.
More than 20 students lapped up activities that allowed them to analyse water from an industry and broader community perspective, giving them insight into various strategies that resources and energy companies use to protect and preserve
water.
The QMEA, the education arm of the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), has developed this work-shop to include hands-on tasks that add real-world knowledge and application of the activities and concepts the students have been studying.
“One of the most frequent questions our QMEA officers are asked when working with students is how their school learning will translate to their lives outside the classroom,” QRC Director of Skills, Education and Diversity, Katrina-Lee Jones said.
“This workshop provides the dual benefit of helping students understand how the industry manages a valuable resource like water, as well as showing how the school curriculum is preparing them for important future careers.”
“As an active community and industry partner, we remain committed to empowering and supporting the development of students who will make up the generations to come,” Millmerran Power’s Plant Manager, Chris Seydel said.
“We are proud to be sponsoring this critical education program that we are confident will guide students onto a pathway into one of the most important and transformational industries - resources and energy.
“Millmerran was the first power station in Australia to use air-cooled, super-critical boiler technology, thereby using less fuel
and less water than conventional stations to produce the same amount of electricity.
“We play a critical role in the communal utilities system, and we want students to see how an organisation can efficiently operate whilst only consuming less than 10 per cent of the water used by a typical station of equivalent size.”
Millmerran State School Principal Rob Michel said this workshop was an excellent forum for students to test their skills in solving real-world challenges by collaborating with each other, gathering data and applying learning outcomes from the classroom.
