Renewables Engineering Islay – February Diary
We’ve had a really busy few weeks ….
Wind Turbine Building
P4/5 and Kate Brown have been busy investigating wind power, moving from pinwheels to desk turbines and finally to designing floating wind turbines…perfect for an island location. This was a fun and busy time in the classroom. Children planned their models, thinking carefully about the design criteria and materials available. They then decided which of their ideas were best and worked in pairs or independently to build their models. They used their Engineering Habits of Mind to guide them and repeatedly tested, altered and improved their turbines as they went along. Testing was done in the rowing boat in the Nursery area as it was full of rainwater. Many models toppled over or sank but the best ideas are going to be improved further and entered into a competition. We’ll keep you posted….
Dearbhla reported My design was very hard to make because you had to get the exact measurements. We needed to work well in a team together. I think we need to understand where our power comes from and grown ups need to know that too.
Morgan said I enjoyed making my turbine because we got to make little models from the junk box and my model was big but it took quite a while to get the base done. The playdough on the base was not effective.
KNEX Renewables
P6/7 and Jo Clark have been improving their engineering skills by building with the new KNEX we purchased. Working in groups and pairs, employing teamwork skills and applying engineering habits of mind, they have built wind turbines, water wheels, solar vehicles and paddle powered cars. P1/2/3 were given a demonstration and explanation of how they worked. Ellen said We made a wind turbine and it was made out of KNEX and when you spun the wheels one of the coils would turn into a smaller wheel and go into a generator. The generator was connected to a wire which then turned a roundabout. I loved doing that and I am going to ask my mum if I can get KNEX at home.
CPD Event for Teachers
As part of our commitment to extend our project out form our own school Maggie Harrison and Maureen MacDonald have been in discussions with Headteachers from the other cluster primary schools to organize some shared engineering challenges. Maggie is part of the SSERC Primary Cluster Programme and is one of three mentors on Islay and Jura who have organized a series of CPD events for teachers to improve confidence in STEM teaching. It has provided the perfect opportunity to include some further CPD linked to our Rolls-Royce project so she shared a SSERC presentation on Engineering Thinking to cluster colleagues. Great fun was had by all. Comments from colleagues included Excellent, engaging and great fun. Easy to apply ideas. Team Port Ellen won the best designed chair for Baby Bear!
Offsetting our Carbon Footprint
P6/7 with Jo Clark have been finding out about ways to offset our carbon footprint and improve the environment. They discovered a search engine called Ecosia which uses revenue from it’s search ads to plant trees. It is a social business who believe that trees have the power to make the world a better place for everyone. Their mission is to plant one billion new trees by 2020…so far they have planted over 20 million! Did you know that every time you search the internet you produce CO2 emissions? We have put Ecosia on all the school computers and ipads so that we can research in a more environmentally friendly way and we hope all readers of this blog will use Ecosia too!
Saving Polar Bears
In P1/2/3 with Maggie Harrison, the children have been very concerned about the plight of polar bears as the ice is melting due to global warming. We have had some very interesting discussions and the children have decided that they would like to adopt a polar bear. They are on a mission to sell ‘Popcorn for Polar Bears.’ It was Katie’s idea; I think saving polar bears important because they will all die if they can’t get food and the babies can’t swim so far if the ice melts.
Large Scale Engineering in Pre-School
Children in nursery have been using some Quadro to design and build some large scale structures during Joint Sessions with P1/2; first a tent for teddy complete with tarpaulin that had to be tested to check that it was waterproof; then a hide to watch birds for the Great Schools Birdwatch. One of our dads, who works for the RSPB, was on hand for a bit of expert advice! Alison Logan is now involving the children in decision making about the sorts of building materials they would like us to buy to develop their skills further.
We have not had any outgoings this month and have £4369 remaining in our budget.
