The highest performing geography and science students from Penryn College learned about everything from bees to solar cells at a Falmouth University sustainability event.

Pupils from the college were joined by other local schools’ top performers at the university’s Tremough campus for activities and presentations about sustainability and the environment.

Lee Franklin, trip organiser and head of science at the college, said: “These guys have worked incredibly hard in and out of lessons in both science and geography this year.

“Days like today are incredibly interesting, to show some things that perhaps wouldn’t normally be covered in lesson time. They all really enjoyed themselves and were a credit to the school and hopefully they’ll learn a lot from it and take it into their lessons.”

The students were able to try their hand at a variety of activities including making the newest generation of organic solar cells, using pigments extracted from fruit, and helping compose a mural with local artists highlighting the problems surrounding marine pollution. They also learned about researchers in the field using radar tracking of bees to assess feeding patterns, the social interaction between badger populations to assess the best way to address the spread of bovine TB, and the dissection of some marine mammals. As an added bonus, they got to discuss the bio degeneration of fuels from sewage, and learnt that faeces from Totnes is more productive than from Plymouth.