Van Walt supports enterprise

Van Walt supports enterprise

December 3, 2013

Here at Van Walt we love to see enterprise, initiative, ingenuity and pure and simple resourcefulness. That’s why we were so impressed when nine year old Harvey Cole, from Grayshott Primary School approached us about our flood monitoring equipment.

Harvey is part of a team of nine pupils, who are coming to the end of a fascinating adventure into the real world of engineering, problem solving and project management, thanks to the commitment and support of a group of parents who decided to enter a team into this year’s First Lego League challenge. This is an annual, international competition for young people aged 9-16 years.

The competition requires the children to fulfil a wide range of tasks, including programming their own robot which must complete a series of challenges involving Lego models. The theme of this year’s challenge is: Nature’s Fury and this is where Van Walt comes in!

Classroom

The team needed to provide their own innovative solution to help in a natural disaster scenario and Harvey and the Grayshott team decided to focus on a local area which has suffered repeated flooding for many years. Not only did they visit the site and meet affected residents but they have managed to provide real assistance.

After finding the Van Walt website and our e+Water L water level and telemetry systems, Harvey approached us to ask if we would be prepared to help by installing this equipment to monitor the water levels at the site and also to set alarms in the event of a potential flood if water in the drainage culvert rose above a certain height.

We were very impressed with the resourcefulness and persistence of this young team and, as a result, we were happy to loan them our specialist equipment for the duration of the challenge so they can record and work with real data and at the same time help the residents present a better case for improved flood defences.

We wish them the best of luck in the competition.

You might also be interested in...

Spot measurement v. continuous environmental monitoring

August 25, 2023

Environmental monitoring has developed considerably over the years. From the time when a consultant went out monthly or quarterly with a dip tape to monitor the groundwater level in a borehole, wind forward...

Read More

Measuring Nitrates (NO3, NO3-N) in the field

June 20, 2023

The interest in Nitrates is nothing new. One way or another we have been measuring them for half a century.

Read More

Save time, save money, save effort, get better results – use low-flow sampling…

June 1, 2023

A client recently contacted me to ask if we can repair their high flow purge pump and or sell then a new one.  They were using it for (among other applications) to purge a 70m deep bore 3 times for a...

Read More