Arnold School

Nuffield Bursary for KaYee

Ka-Yee Cheng a member of the Upper Sixth Form, was awarded a Nuffield Bursary  this summer which enabled her to undertake research at the  Salford University School of Built Environment Research Centre.

She spent the whole of August there working under Drs Angela Lee and Carl Abbott to research into the question; Does ventilation impact on the way children learn with reference to the ‘Building Schools for the Future' programme? 

KaYee said, "I was interested in researching whether ventilation has a direct impact on the way school children learn and I also investigated other factors in the classroom environment which might be important in maximising learning".

Salford's School of Built Environment Research Centre is involved in the research behind the ‘Building Schools for the Future' project -  a £45 billion programme of government investment to transform or rebuild every secondary school in the England.

"There were so many things to take into consideration in the design of a classroom and also of the whole school layout; the colour of the room; the acoustics, the ventilation and layout. Different heating and ventilation methods could cause large temperature differences for example.I had to research from the internet, look up information in the books and read a lot of literature reviews."

Not exactly a holiday then, but as KaYee says, "It was a good insight into real life problems and I was amazed at how complex the design of a building can be. There were many compromises that had to be made between the different teams of researchers and a design that was necessary for the security of the building conflicted with the design preferred to enable disabled access for example."

"I enjoyed working with the team which included PhD students and lecturers at the University; I gained a rare insight into the world of academic research."

KaYee will now be hoping that her grades in Physics, Economics, Maths and Further Maths will be good enough to gain a place at either Oxford or Cambridge, where she hopes to study Engineering.

Dr Angela Lee commented to Head of Physics Ruth Matheson, "I am glad KaYee enjoyed her time. She was an absolute joy to work with. She is a girl that is very capable of applying her own initiative, hardworking, confident, works well within a team and in new situations - and a strong advocate for your school! She will do very well in her chosen profession."

Posted by: Miss R Matheson
Date: Tuesday 23/09/2008