science

Pollee

Pollee is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pollee rather than just read about it. In short: Pollee is a mobile female urinal, designed by Nuala Collins, Christian Pagh and Sara Nanna and produced by the Danish design bureau UIWE. It is specifically designed to be used at public events such as concerts or music festivals.

Key takeaways

Pollee belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pollee to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pollee from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pollee is a mobile female urinal, designed by Nuala Collins, Christian Pagh and Sara Nanna and produced by the Danish design bureau UIWE. It is specifically designed to be used at public events such as concerts or music festivals.

Development In March 2011, the organizers of the Denmark Roskilde Festival, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, initiated a conference ("The urination summit") titled "Backstage: Piss-Off" to discuss the problems of public sanitation during the festival. The organizers were increasingly confronted with "wild peeing", because the toilet and urinal facilities did not keep up with the growing demand:

"We had really long toilet queues, where it was often women who stood and waited. This meant that many girls ended up using the fence to urinate." — Signe Brink Pedersen, project manager at Roskilde Festival The Roskilde committee initiated a campaign aimed at "developing human solutions to peeing in public space — for both sexes." The Copenhagen-based UIWE design bureau took part and developed Pollee — an open-air, touch-free urinal for girls as an alternative to the crowded and often unhygienic portable toilets.

Concept The idea behind Pollee was to provide for women an easy and convenient urination alternative to portable toilets. The plan was to reduce the queues in front of the portable toilets: "Our drive is that Pollee becomes a real queue-killer that enables girls to get peeing over and done with quickly, so they can get on with the more fun and important things. Queuing is such a waste of life!" — UIWE

Together with the designers Sara Nanna and Nuala Collins, three prototypes were developed. All prototypes had, to varying degrees, plastic walls for privacy built around four triangular bowls. The urinal is used in a semi-squat position. Pollee is arranged in a crosswise style, allowing four women to urinate simultaneously. Handholds are attached to the walls, that help users to keep a comfortable position.

Three final versions of the Pollee were first introduced at the Roskilde Festival 2011. The introduction was regarded to be successful; the urinal was well received, with many women using it: "Quite frankly: the girls' response at the festival was overwhelming. We have talked to hundreds of girls and although we received ideas for improvement, the overall message was: We use it and we love it!" — Christian Pagh

See also Female urination device MadamePee

Notes

External links

Pollee — the female urinal at Roskilde Festival — Video about Pollee, hosted at Vimeo

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pollee

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pollee claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pollee before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pollee ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pollee

In research: Pollee appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pollee in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pollee is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Portable buildings and shelters, Toilets, Urinals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pollee outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pollee in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pollee means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pollee out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pollee in simple terms?

Why does Pollee matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pollee?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pollee.