During the week Sunday 28th June to Friday 3rd July 1998, we took part in the Northeast Industry and Schools project week based at St Hild and Bede College Durham. Our project was supplied by Glaxo Wellcome engineering department at Barnard Castle. The project was to investigate the flow rate of plate orifices. These are plates with a hole to control fluid flow in pipes. We were given a simple mathematical model of the flow and apparatus to control the flow. The aim was to determine the suitability of this model for different shapes of orifice plates. The plates have differening upstream/downstream profiles or a different diameters. We found that increasing the diameter of the orifice or the head of water increases the flow rate. We found that if the shape of the downstream face of the plate was changed the flow rate was also changed, but if the shape of the downstream face is changed then there is no corresponding change in flow rate. The model involved some interesting extensions of A-level physics work; applying Bernoulli's and Torricelli's equations and understanding laminar and turbulent flow. This project involved a real engineering problem and gave us a taste of what an engineering degree could involve.