Play, Be, C: The Marine Engineer
Resources and activities themed around a STEM job, to build language and understanding of the world of work.
Overview
Marine engineers make and fix boats, ships, submarines, oil rigs and drilling equipment.
Marine engineers are:
Curious and want to know which materials sink and float.
Creative when they design and build things like boats, ships, submarines and oil rigs.
Resilient when their ideas or designs don’t work the first time – they try again to get it right.
Early Learning Goals links
- Mathematics ELG: Numerical Patterns
- Understanding the World ELG: Past and Present
- Understanding the World ELG: People, Culture and Communities
- Understanding the World ELG: The Natural World
- Expressive Arts and Design ELG: Creating with Materials
Characteristics of effective learning
Our EYFS units provide enabling environments with teaching and support from adults. Reflecting on the characteristics of effective teaching and learning, children will have opportunity to learn and develop by:
• playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Taken from Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
© Crown copyright 2023 licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The Book
Our suggested book for this Unit is Who Sank the Boat by Pamela Allen.
You can find out more about the book at the publisher’s page, and the Google Books page will link you to retailers and local libraries.
Activities
These adult led activities and provocations will support the introduction of the marine engineer career to the children in your setting.
Investigating floating and sinking adult led activity
Support children to investigate which objects float and which objects sink.
Raft building adult led activity
Investigate how to make the best raft using a variety of materials.
Investigating water displacement adult led activity
Use water displacement to rescue objects from a container of water.
Animals in a boat provocation
Challenge the children to find which boat will fit the most animals in it before it sinks!
Build a boat provocation
Challenge the children to design and create a boat to float in your water tray.
Sensory floating and sinking bottles
Challenge the children to investigate these sensory floating and sinking bottles.
STEM at home activities
We have included these links to our related STEM at home activities. These could be sent out for families to try at home, or run in school at a family session.
Visit our foil boats STEM at home page.Resources
You can download our marine engineer poster to use in your setting.
Marine engineers are involved in the designing, building, testing, maintaining and repairing of boats and ships as well as underwater craft such as submarines. They are responsible for the internal systems of a ship, which include the propulsion, electrical, refrigeration and steering systems. They can be involved in work such as marine surveying, drilling underwater for oil and gas, and in the building of offshore platforms.
Marine engineers may work at shipyards, on a ship, at a port or underwater. The job can be physically demanding. They may have to work outdoors in all weathers and may spend nights away from home.
There are different ways to become a marine engineer. For example you could do a marine engineer apprenticeship with the Royal Navy, or go to university and study marine engineering, offshore engineering, naval architecture or marine technology.
