YEAR 3 and 4 pupils from St Francis RC School, Milford Haven, joined the Darwin Centre for a litter pick with a difference at Freshwater West last week.

As part of the Dragon LNG Darwin Experience, education programme, schools are not only picking up rubbish and learning about the effects on marine life on our beautiful coastline, but are also using the beach sessions to support maths in the classroom.

In groups the pupils collect different coloured litter in different bags, weighing them all at the end. This creates a table of data (weights) for each group, the pupils use this data to create posters, work out averages, and create graphs back at school.

The competition to pick up the most rubbish on the beach is only concluded once they crunch the numbers back in class.

This helps to present the children with numbers they are keen to do maths with.

The data from the schools that take part will all be collated on a central data base so schools can compare and contrast the amounts of rubbish over a year or more, again creating fun ways to use numbers, seeing which schools collect the most, or which months have the most rubbish etc.

Huw Benbow, the county council's IT lead for schools also joined the class at Freshwater West.

He is helping to develop digital platforms for the sharing of data in line with new orders from Welsh Government through the Digital Competency Framework.

Marten Lewis director of the Darwin Centre said: “The children love a good competition, and they also love protecting our local coastal wildlife by cleaning the rubbish off the beaches, it’s great to see them excited about getting back to school to do some maths and find out which group collect the most rubbish.

"I would like to thank the school, Huw, and Dragon LNG for such a great day."