Women in Engineering

The objective of this activity is to suspend an object (egg) using a shoelace for 30 seconds. Are you up to the challenge?

• RNLI Activity Instruction Sheet - PDF 220KB
• RNLI Activity Safety Information Sheet - PDF 127KB

Your task is to help design the slipway from the station to the water, by looking at the forces acting on the boat and then calculating the best angle for the design so that the lifeboat enters the water at the right speed.

Remember that your crew are depending on you.

• Mathematics Activity Instruction Sheet - PDF  184 KB
• Mathematics Activity Safety Information sheet - PDF 92KB 
• Shannon Slipway Design Diagram - PDF 254KB

This session will introduce you to the international drowning problem and how design and engineering could be used to help. You'll be able to calculate, test and create concepts for a buoyancy device using plastic bottles. 

Want to give it a go? 

• Engineering and International Activity Instruction Sheet - PDF 245KB
• Engineering and International Activity Safety Sheet - PDF 93KB
• Buoyancy Calculation Sheet - PDF 64KB
• Link to the Buoyancy video referred to in the Engineering activity - Upthrust | BBC Bitesize (YouTube) 

The RNLI uses very high specification technical clothing made by the clever clothing engineers and specialists at Helly Hansen. This clothing is designed to keep our Lifeboat Crews dry and warm when they are “out on a shout” and to protect our Lifeguards when they are helping people to stay safe on the beach and in the sea.

This challenge will give you the opportunity to learn more about it and hopefully come up with your own ideas on how to reduce any negative environmental impacts in future. You can also complete our practical challenge by upcycling an old t-shirt into something amazing, unique and new!

• Sustainability Activity Sheet - PDF 464 KB
• Sustainability Activity Safety Information Sheet - PDF 180KB
• Sustainability Challenge - Life Cycle Analysis Resource - PDF 709KB

As technology advances and our world changes, it is important that the RNLI continue to innovate and build on the latest advances in science, technology and engineering.

The world’s first unsinkable lifeboat was designed in 1785 by Lionel Lukin, using the River Thames in England to test his various experiments. The simple boat was made with materials such as wood, cork and copper plates, a basic shell that would carry up to 20 people. Fast forward over 200 years and you don’t need to be on a super yacht to enjoy the high-tech advantages on todays marine vessels. RNLI lifeboats now feature chart plotters, autopilot and even self-righting technology in the case of capsizing!

Imagine another 20, 30 or even 50 years in the future, what new technology could lifeboats have onboard to help save even more lives at sea?

• Technology Activity Instruction Sheet - PDF 196KB
• Technology Activity Safety Information Sheet - PDF 89KB
• Technology High Tech Lifeboat Example - PDF 1.2MB

Each year Soroptimist International (SI) Bournemouth challenge teams of girls in years 8 and 9 at local schools, to use STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) knowledge and research to create a sustainable solution to help improve the lives people in the poorest parts of our world. These solutions can be anything to address any situation. 

The next SI STEAM Challenge starts in October 2021. Girls have until the end of February 2022 to submit their completed project report. A team of judges from local STEAM based industries will judge the heats and then the finals, including the physical model/prototype and a short presentation from the team, which will take place at Bournemouth University during March 2022. 

For further information and support on taking part in 2021/22 STEAM Challenge, please contact SI Bournemouth via email at: stemsibournemouth@gmail.com.

Take a look at the PDF for some example of what other students have ideated: 

• Soroptimist International (SI) Bournemouth Challenge - PDF 124KB

The RNLI has come to the rescue once again! If you’re a teacher, parent or guardian looking for ways to educate, entertain and engage your children, play our Water Safety video – perfect for primary school-aged children.

Your children can learn from these videos so that when they next visit beaches or open water, they'll be ready and stay safe.

For more water safety activities for primary and secondary children, check out our Youth Education Resources.

Lifeboat tours

Take a virtual tour round some of our lifeboats!

• Falmouth Severn class tour
• Shannon class tour
• D Class tour

Training

Here at the home of RNLI Training we deliver a wide variety of courses, from Seamanship to advanced command courses for volunteer crews across the UK and ROI. The video shows some of the activities the trainers train the crews here at the college. You'll see that the crew are given the best possible training to face the worse of conditions, operating our vessels in high-risk areas, all while keeping a calm and cool atmosphere while reassuring the casualties that everything is ok.

Training isn't how it used to be thanks to developments in technology. Crews spend a minimum of 2 days in our purpose-built survival tank, experiencing abandoning to a life raft and an ILB (Inshore Lifeboat) capsize, so if things do go wrong, we have prepared them to the best of their ability. It's like a simulator for lifeboats! 

Navigation and command courses are also run here in Poole. Crews are put through their paces, learning to navigate our lifeboats in high stress scenarios, while on the flipside our Helms, Coxswains and Commanders are given a week of intense training in Bridge Team Management. Our Helms, Coxswains and Commanders are trained to manage the crew, vessel and her equipment, maintaining an overall situational awareness while taking overall responsibility for the safety of the vessel and its crew. 

The RNLI college has been open since 2003 and in that time, have trained thousands upon thousands of crews, to be able to return home, after saving lives at sea.