Journal/New MGL Services

Coastguard Station Simulation Day

MGL have just finished developing a Coastguard Simulation Day in conjunction with the MNA and RNLI. The day revolves around a simulated ferry disaster. The children become ‘Junior Coastguards’ for the day at Crosby Coastguard station.

Aims:

• To build co-operation between groups of children
• To deliver information about the work of the coastguard station in a fun and enjoyable way
• Provide links to the Primary Curriculum
• To challenge pupils and involve them in problem solving tasks
• To deliver message of prevention of incidents and that the coastguard is a 999 service

The Problem

The Mersey Ferry is sinking off shore. All the passengers need to be rescued some of which may be injured, some may be in the sea.

The Activities

The children work in groups throughout the day.

Building a raft/boat
Consideration of things a life raft would need to keep survivors safe. From a variety of materials children will build model raft and test with weights in a tank of water.

Rescue
Programming roamer ‘dressed’ as lifeboat to rescue injured passengers from ferry and return to shore.

Tallying Casualties
Roamers collects casualties. Roamer ‘pilot’ reports on number and type of casualties collected and feeds back to ‘land’ crew via headsets. Land crew to tally casualties until number on board ship is reached.

Mud Rescue
One of the casualties has swum ashore and got stuck in the mud! Children complete electronic simulation of a mud rescue. Drag and drop activity choosing which equipment children would use and why? Simulation encourages children to consider which equipment would spread weight and prevent rescuers from sinking.

Reporting
Pupils to record events through day with notebooks, digital voice recorders, camcorders or digital cameras, with view to making a report when returning to school.

Knowledge and Understanding
Use will be made during the day of RNLI electronic materials including video, Beach Safety Game and Mayday CD-ROM. The children will take part in an interactive quiz summarising key points of the day using an interactive class voting system

Presentation
The children will be presented with certificates and coastguard activity packs.

Possible outline of Day

9.30 Arrival

9.35 Introductions and Tour of Station – Operations room

10.00 The Problem: Introduction by MGL staff

10.15 Boat Building Activity

11.00 Test Boats

11.15 Roamer Rescue/ Casualty Tally

12.00 Lunch

12.30 Roamer Rescue/ Casualty Tally

1.30 Mud Rescue Simulation

2.15 Inspection of Mud rescue equipment

2.30 Lifeboat video and beach safety activities

3.0 Interactive quiz and Presentation

Quotes from Children:

“My favourite part was building the rafts because we worked as a team, it was really good”

“I have learnt that the coastguard don’t always save people from the sea, but from mud, beaches and cliffs as well”

“My favourite part was when we saved 50 people using laptops, head-sets and Roamers”

“It was a good experience”

To find out more about this Simulation Day or to book the experience for your school, please email Chris Hackett @ MGL