BSL helped mentor more than 80 Gladstone Grade 8 students at last week’s Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy’s (QMEA) ‘Energy for the Future’ challenge, held at Central Queensland University.

The aim of the day was to encourage students who are excelling at maths and science = to problem-solve appropriate energy solutions based on the variables of world economies now and 50 years into the future. The task was first put into context by resources sector representatives who described the different types of energy, including biomass, coal, hydroelectricity, LNG/CSG, nuclear, solar and wind.

BSL Process Engineer Madeleine Lewis attended the day to help students and was assigned biomass as the energy she would both present and mentor on. Once the students were armed with the knowledge of the various energy types, they were grouped to represent different countries around the world and were tasked with determining what their country’s appropriate energy solution would be.

“It was interesting to see some of the preconceived ideas the students had on what an appropriate energy mix should be. Some students were quite environmentally conscious and wanted all their country’s energy to come from solar, but they had to think further about what was appropriate for their country and determine ‘would this form of energy production actually be able to support the country?’” Madeleine said.

Madeleine was surprised by the level of engagement of the Grade 8 students—given they were doing some Grade 12 work—and it further cemented how beneficial it was for BSL and other businesses to mentor these students, supporting the next generation of problem solvers on energy use.

General Manager Joe Rea was pleased BSL could release Madeleine from her role to support this educational experience for local students.

“The future of young Australians means a lot to all of us and while we are working hard to ensure there is a future for Australian manufacturing we must acknowledge that one of the few certainties is that we will continue to be challenged to find more sustainable pathways to produce world class aluminium,” he said.

“We are appreciative of the QMEA for organising these types of educational events as they help prepare the future leaders of our nation to think about the importance of energy for the generations to come.”