BP STEM Challenge Handy Hydro Port Ellen Entry

This term P67 have been learning about renewables and how energy is produced from different sources.  They went on a trip around the renewables projects on Islay and this inspired a group to enter the BP STEM Challenge by making and testing their own Hydro Energy device.  Watch the video they made for their entry below.

Nuclear energy

Nuclear is a non renewable energy source.

Nuclear doesn’t release any gasses or fuels but if a tsunami happens or a terrorist attacks it,  it will release a lot of bad chemical that can cause global warming it can also kill people and it wont go away for thousands years.

The chemical reaction will cause radiation the parts of it will have to be hidden in a special rock because its the only rock that can hold it with out letting it go this rock has no cracks so it can hold it. This rock is on Islay!

Nuclear is from Radioactive minerals which are uranium they are found by mining. When the minerals are spilt they split in Nuclear reactors.

Nuclear only needs a tiny bit to create a lot of energy, It doesn’t release gasses or fuels.

They are expensive to run, if they leak they can have a massive effect on people.

Wind Power

This term we learned about wind power and we made proper models on our wall for Rolls-Royce.  We made pin wheels too and we filmed this on the camera that Rolls-Royce gave us after we learned all of the parts.  Just today we were learning more about wind and wind turbines.  After the holidays we are going to visit a turbine on a trip. We are going inside it in the tower in case you don’t now what the tower is its the big long stick thing. Wind turbines generate energy and electricity. This energy and electricity is good for our planet because were an eco friendly school and we care about are environment. We did a challenge and we made  a paper wind mill using card , paper , cup , string , scissors , tape , and a pencil.  The  challenge was to make a wind mill that spins and lifts a plastic cup of the ground with weights in it. To make it move we used  a hair dryer.  It was fun.

by Dearbhla and Millie

P4/5 Wind Turbines

 

Our class  have made wind turbines.  We made a wind turbine out of paper, pencil, sticks, string, pin tape ,string and scissors.

We stuck the pencil to the table and attached the string to the pencil. After that we put a hole in the middle of the blades. There is a cup you cut a two holes in it you put your string through the holes in the cup . Then you get a hairdryer and push the blades around.

 

December Diary

Panto fever has hit Port Ellen as we have been preparing for our whole school pantomime which takes place every two years.  We have also been organising the Christmas Fair, our main fundraiser, and P1/2/3 are preparing for their Nativity. Meanwhile, our Rolls-Royce journey continues….

Statoil Young Imagineers Finalist

As a result of our engineering project, we had a finalist in the national Young Imagineers competition run by Statoil.  Sarah, from P6/7, invented a device that would save sheep stuck on their backs by making a scary sound and getting them to turn over.  Her device was made into a prototype and she had to present it at the final in London at the Science Museum.  Everyone is very proud of her achievement. Sarah says she is much more confident now about talking about engineering after presenting in front of a large audience, and she is inspired to take up engineering when she grows up.

YOUNG IMAGINEERING

 

Switch Off Fortnight

Continuing their learning about energy in Term1, Kate Brown’s class (P4/5) decided to try and encourage everyone to use less energy in school and at home. The children were quite shocked at how much electricity an electric shower uses and from looking at energy use they decided to make others understand this and think about saving energy, electricity in particular. So they joined the National “Switch Off Fortnight” and made information posters for the local community and home. This campaign was so successful that this week they are keen to spend part of the Christmas Disco without lights and use alternative sources instead…..glow sticks are at the ready!

 

Introducing Renewables

This month Primary 6/7 have been working hard on researching renewable and non renewable sources of energy with Jo Clark.  They wanted to know what energy sources are used in Scotland and the implications for the environment.  Using One note they researched online and then used the notes to create posters, blogs and Sways.  They debated in class the various types of energy source and chose the ones they thought were best, and wrote a discursive essay on renewable energy.  In maths they looked at data produced by the Scottish Government on Energy use in Scotland and then analysed, interpreted and drew conclusions from it as part of a holistic assessment. Finally, they came up with pledges of what they could do themselves to reduce energy consumption.

Meanwhile, in P4/5 with Kate Brown, the children have been learning about wind power as there is a tall wind turbine outside the village. The children know that wind is sustainable and they made their own pinwheels to record the wind direction/wind strength associated with the speed of the wheel which led to discussions about what happens to wind turbines when there is no wind, and how strong winds here in Islay can be used to generate electricity. They then worked in groups to complete the Wind Turbine Challenge from the STEM website. The aim was to create a fair test to try to make a turbine that could raise a cup from the floor using a hairdryer. Charlet said, “Our group all had roles and Rhuraidh was the engineer. He designed a turbine but the rest of us felt there was not enough detail to make the model and so Caitidh, our artist, added more. Then we used card for the blades and a pencil for the shaft. At first we taped the shaft to the desk but it wouldn’t go round so we fixed that problem by putting card over the pencil loosely so it could turn. Sadly, our Turbine only lifted the cup a little bit but did manage when we gave it a bit of a hand.  Next time we would change the size and shape of the blades and also use stronger wind power

Next term George Dean will be helping us to organise visits to the Islay wind turbine and other sites that generate or use renewable energy on Islay.

Learning how Energy impacts on the Environment

In P1/2/3 Maggie Harrison has been using a story called Who will Save Us? to introduce the concept of global warming.  All the children have been really engaged with learning all about the Antarctic and the penguins who live there and then how global warming might cause the ice to melt and affect not only penguins but other animals and people in different parts of the world too.  Iona made this fantastic poster and she said that she ‘didn’t like the bad gas getting stuck in the earth’s blanket and that we should save the penguins and polar bears!’

Engineering in Pre-School

Joint sessions of structured play have started with the nursery and P1/2 – these will continue on a weekly basis from now until the end of the session. Maggie Harrison and Alison Logan are working together to plan how to incorporate the development of engineering thinking into these, although with new giant wooden blocks and the KNEX purchased the children are building some amazing structures.

Maureen MacDonald and Maggie Harrison have had meetings with Headteachers from the other primary schools in Islay and Jura to see how they can be involved in our Rolls-Royce project next term.  Following the school being awarded a Digital Schools Award, the first school in Argyll & Bute to do so, Jo Clark was also interviewed with regards to a national website wanting to develop engineering skills across schools in the UK for the 2018 Year of Engineering.

Hydro Power

Hydro power makes electricity by water being released from a reservior flowing through a turbine,spinning it, which in turn activates a generator to make electricity. Hydro power is a renewable energy source. 18% of the UK uses hydro power. It’s negative point is that  it is expensive to build and it dams water flooding lots of land.   However it won’t pollute the air with greenhouse gases like power plants that burn fossil fules.  We have small scale hydro electric projects on Islay that make electricity for a house.  There is also a large scale project near Oban, called Cruachan Hydro Plant.  Islay has used water since olden days to move things as this old abandoned waterwheel shows.

Coal

Coal is a non-renewable energy source and it is also a fossil fuel.  Fossil fuels are a source of energy that takes millions of years to form and people use them so much that someday they will run out; coal is a fossil fuel. To produce electricity coal is burned to heat water and produce steam; the steam then propels the blades of the turbine. Then it is attached to a generator and this produces electricity.

electricity from coal

There are advantages and disadvantages about coal. The advantages are:

  • Coal can be found in a lot of places and there is still plenty in the UK
  • Coal can be easily transported to the power station
  • Coal is a relatively cheap energy source
  • There are many coal reserves in the world

The coal disadvantages are:

To dig up coal, we have to dig up mines and they can be dangerous

  • Transporting coal by lorry and train mine to the power station causes pollution in the world
  •  Coal is a non-renewable source and will eventually run out in around 100 years
  • Burning coal releases greenhouse gases which add to global warming

Biomass a Renewable energy source.

Biomass is a Renewable energy source it is also short for biological material. Biomass creates heat and energy. The energy it contains is from the sun. Biomass is created by burning things like some crops, types of rubbish, manure, scrap and lumber forest in a boiler. The  most common types of Biomass boilers are hot water boilers and steam boilers. Co-firing biomass with coal is a very effective way of using biomass for energy. Biomass is the only renewable energy source that can be converted into liquid. The countries that use Biomass the most are Sweden, Austria, and the United states of America.

 

We Became A Digital School

Our school has just achieved digital school status through the Digital Schools Scotland Awards Scheme.  To achieve this we had to review our approach to technology in school and have our work validated.  We spoke to a lady called Jen Mackay using Glow Meet, and she asked us questions like what technology have you been using in school.  We are the first school in the whole of Argyll to win this award and the first to do it via Glow.  Jen MacKay said that we were very good at telling her what technology we use in school and what we use it for. We use Glow for writing essays and homework and also for writing blogs on our website and our learning blog.  We use Classdojo so that if we needed to bring in something to school like a packed lunch for a school trip Mrs Clark can message our mum or dad, we also use Excel to work out points for our houses.  Sumdog Maths is really helpful for us too and we also use Nessy to help us with our spelling skills.

So that is how we became a digital school.

By Abi Logan

Imagineers Presentation London Trip

 

On Saturday 18th November I  went to London as a finalist for the Tomorrows Engineer competition. In the competition there were 10 finalists from all around the UK. All the finalists had to meet up in the Science Museum to present their invention in front of 4 judges and the audience.  We had professional posters made to show our inventions.  My invention was the Scaredy Sheep, a device that would bark like a dog and is attached to the sheeps ear so when sheep get stuck on their backs they are scared into jumping up again.

When the finalists first arrived we went down into a room where the judges were and we got to talk to them and the host so we weren’t as scared to talk about our inventions in front of them. We also had to get head sets on so we could do a sound check. After the break we all went down and sat down. The first thing that happened was a balloon experiment and a bubble experiment. In the bubble experiment a lady got bubble mixture and big bubble stick. Another lady came out and got another bubble stick and each side of the room did a bubble competition. The balloon experiment was really cool because a lady put a balloon on fire and it made a REALLY loud bang.

Then the first finalists went up to present their ideas. Then we got a quick break to explore the museum. After about 15 minutes we had to go back and on my way in their was a robot called Oscar who walked into me. Oscar was a really cool robot because he speaks to you and hands out chocolates and  lollipops. Finally we got into the room and sat down and then there was another quiz. Then it was lunch and after we got to have a quick demonstration on how the body digests food. It wasn’t a good sight at all!

After the disgusting demonstration I had to go up and present my idea. I was nervous but excited and was proud of explaining my invention. Then the judges came out and the host announced the winner,  and the winning design was an excellent hover wheelchair. We all congratulated the winner and then we got to explore more of the museum. After a long day I went back to my hotel. I really enjoyed the competition and I would like to be an engineer when I grow up. While I was there I learnt that to complete something you have to stick with it and keep trying.

The Engineer Grabber Challenge

In class we have been looking at engineering and we have been doing challenges in groups to help us feel like an engineer. For this challenge we were told that we had make a model and we were to be able to pick up an object from one metre away. First thing that we did in our groups was go off separately and make a design and label it so that we could see how it would work and what materials it needed to be made. When that was finished we got back in our groups and we decided what one that we would make. We went of and started to make our model and when we had to test it out and my group managed to pick up a water bottle from a metre away. Then when we had finished Mrs Clark decided who was the winner of this challenge and it was my group.

Rowan Morris

November Diary

 

Renewables Engineering Islay – November Diary

 

Mentor Visit

We were all delighted to welcome Neil Chattle from Rolls-Royce to the school at the end of October. He spent time getting to know the team and having a tour of the school. He gave a presentation to the children in the afternoon and they had an opportunity to see some of the materials and parts that make up a Rolls-Royce jet engine.  We were all amazed that the cooling mechanism allows the engine to operate above it’s melting point and that it would be capable of preventing an ice cube melting in a hot oven!  Clever engineering indeed!  Neil introduced the children to the Bloodhound SSC.  Working in teams, the children then built model Bloodhounds powered by balloons and had a great afternoon trying to refine them to make them go faster.  Coincidentally, Neil’s visit was the day before the first public test run of the Bloodhound in Newquay, Cornwall…..so the whole school watched as the car made 210mph.  We will follow Bloodhound’s progress with interest.

 

Children as Leaders

Following leadership training, P6/7 children have been encouraged to set up clubs for younger pupils so we now have a KNEX Club and a Lego Club, in addition to the usual football, table tennis and dance clubs.  Maureen MacDonald, Headteacher, encourages us to promote leadership at all levels within the school. The clubs have been really well attended and we used some of the funding to purchase new KNEX and Lego material for them. Dearbhla says that ‘KNEX club is really fun because you make something new every time and I am learning new skills to make cubes that are really tricky.’ Donald, who runs the Lego Club said that “We are encouraging children to use their imagination and be creative with the Lego.” Charlie is promoting teamwork by asking children to build small components of bigger models.

After-School Clubs

We have started an after-school club for children from P4-7, supervised by Jo Clark.  Again there has been lots of interest in this and we are lucky to have the support of two senior pupils from Islay High School – Young STEM Ambassadors – to help us.  It’s great to have these young women to be positive role models for girls in the primary school. They have been giving children open-ended problem solving tasks where children have had to work together to solve a problem. Last week they were engineering a carrier to transport a ping pong ball down a zip-wire.

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week

Throughout the school we are continuing to promote engineering and develop engineering habits of mind.  As a school we engaged with Tomorrow’s Engineers Week. Jo Clark and P6/7 found out about sustainable engineering and the 6Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Rethink and Repair – to appreciate that the environment needs to be considered alongside any engineering solution and that any design needs to be both efficient and sustainable in terms of the environment. Matthew Campbell says ‘We had to  rank the 6Rs in order – I thought that reuse was the best one because things can be used many times are best for the environment.” They were tasked with building a “Helping Hand Grabber’ which had to have a reach of 1m.  In Kate Brown’s P4/5 class the children looked at different types of bridge design.  They then worked in groups to build some fantastic bridges.  Already Kate could see progress in her children from the initial bridges that were built on the baseline build.  In P1/2/3 Maggie Harrison invited parents in to join their children doing an engineering challenge – design and build a chair for baby bear, who had cruelly had his chair ruined when Goldilocks visited.  Alison Logan and all the children in the Nursery have been making the most of the new resources we have bought for them – Kids KNEX and stories like Rosie Revere, Engineer.  This week we are starting our joint sessions – structured play for pre-5 children and P1 and P2 together.  Maggie and Alison will be working together on this; once the children are settled into this new routine this will be an ideal opportunity to share practice in developing engineering skills.

Thinking about Energy

Meanwhile the whole school are continuing to think about how we use energy in our school and in our lives.  Our new Eco-monitors are being vigilant about switching off lights and George Dean from the Islay Energy Trust is going to get the school some energy meters. The Islay Energy Trust is a community-owned charity. Its aims are to develop and operate renewable energy projects for the benefit of the community, and to reduce the island’s carbon footprint. George will be supporting us with this project, organizing site visits for children and putting us in contact with different renewables companies that are looking to operate locally. P4/5 are busy organizing activities for Switch Off fortnight – more news to follow.  In all the classes we have started looking at the effect that our energy use has on the planet and this will be our focus for the rest of this term. Maureen MacDonald and Maggie Harrison have met the Parent Council and are promoting the project more widely in the community.

 

A Chair for Baby Bear

As part of Tomorrow’s Engineers week mums, dads and grans came in to help P1/2/3 with an engineering challenge.  The problem was that Goldilocks had broken Baby Bear’s chair and so when Mummy Bear made him some more porridge there was nowhere for him to sit. A great afternoon was had by all and we had some interesting designs.  At the end of the afternoon Baby Bear tested out all the chairs; they had to stay standing for 10 seconds. Thanks to everyone who came along to help us.

Our Rainbow Beam Bridge

We built a bridge using cardboard, lego, string, lolly sticks and tape. We tested it to see if it was sturdy by putting a toy car on and it didn’t fall down. We had to make the legs shorter because it was not stable. We added lolly sticks like a triangle for extra support. The lego was used as pillars to hold up the glass roof which is to shelter the vehicles or pedestrians from the weather.

Image result for beam bridge

Bridges

Today we made bridges and we are only allowed to use scissors, sellotape, string, lego, cardboard, lolly sticks and plastic. Myself and Dylan made a suspension bridge we used lots of lego – Dylan was my lego helper he went to get me lego. We used  string for the suspension part of the bridge, lego for the legs and suspension part and cardboard for the actual bit of the bridge. We used sellotape to tape the legs on and the suspension  part of the bridge and to tape the string on to the lego and now it is done. We are very proud of our bridge!

Tomorrows Engineers

In school this week the whole of the school is doing a topic called Tomorrows Engineers. In p1/2/3 they have been getting their parents in to help them make their models which were chairs. In p4/5 they have been making fabulous bridges some are small and some big. In p6/7 we have been making grabbers to pick up something.

Here is one of p6/7’s grabbers:

Here is one of p4/5’s bridges:

Here is one of p1/2/3’s chairs:

By Abi Logan

Brilliant Bridges

We created a sturdy bridge with 2 coffee can as supports as well as 1 tower of lego in the middle, on top there is a strand of card , a welcome sign on top of the card and some triangles made out of sticks. it is a very sturdy bridge because of all of the supports. we can also fit some boats underneath. so overall it is a very good bridge design.

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week

This week, 6-10th November is Tomorrow’s Engineers week.  At Port Ellen we will be doing lots of engineering challenges and finding out more about what an engineer is and how they solve problems.  We will be engineers on a mission, solving problems and sorting the planet.  See the PPT below to find out more about engineering careers.

make-a-difference-be-an-engineer-2

Port Ellen welcomes our Rolls-Royce Science Prize mentor

We were delighted to welcome Neil Chattle, our mentor for the Rolls-Royce Science Prize, to Port Ellen on Wednesday.  Children enjoyed listening to a presentation about Rolls-Royce and Neil’s career as an engineer with the company.  They got a chance to handle some pieces of jet engines and we were all amazed how lightweight some of the components were and how the cooling systems within the engines would be able to stop ice cubes from melting in a hot oven! We were then introduced to the Bloodhound, a supersonic car powered by a Rolls-Royce engine, and got to work in teams to build a model Bloodhound powered by balloons.  Neil said that he’d never seen balloon models go so far!

Engineering Bridges

A big part of our Rolls-Royce Science Prize project this year is developing engineering skills and encouraging children to think like engineers.  Our first challenge was to build a bridge with a span of 30cm that could support a plastic cup which would then have weights added. To make it even more tricky there was a strict time limit!  In P1/2/3 the winning bridge held 20 marbles!!

October Diary

Renewables Engineering Islay

Our project for the Rolls-Royce Science Prize aims to build children’s understanding and experience of engineering within the context of renewable energy. Living on a small island means that children have a limited experience of different jobs  and we want to promote engineering.  We feel that developing Engineering Habits of Mind as a way of tackling problems will not only apply to engineering tasks but many other learning experiences that children encounter. The renewables context for the project comes from our amazing natural environment. Islay is surrounded by sea and subject to regular strong winds. It is home to the Limpet Wave Station – a prototype wave turbine and there are plans to use the strong tidal currents to  power an array of underwater turbines in the future. We also have our first community wind turbine.

 

What is an Engineer?

In this first phase of the project we have tried to establish some baselines so that we can measure the impact of our project at the end of the year.  In all classes, children were asked ‘What is an engineer?’  The results of this were fascinating; nearly all of the children in P1/2/3 thought that engineers ‘fixed cars’ while children in P6/7 almost all children saw engineers as wearing hard hats, steel capped boots and having tool belts.  Many children also saw engineers as being ‘only boys.’ P6/7 have started to research different fields in engineering such as chemical and biomedical engineering.

 

Assessing our Engineering Skills.

Since developing Engineering Habits of Mind underpins our project we have used a Do you think like and Engineer? self-assessment tool with children to see how they felt about their skills at the outset.  The resource we used was developed by the Royal Academy of Engineering for schools participating in the ‘Thinking like an Engineer’ project during 2014-2016. Staff also decided that we should try and assess the children’s engineering skills in a practical task at the beginning and end of the project – we decided on a bridge to span a 30cm gap and support a plastic cup into which weights would be dropped. This was also the first session where we used the video camera, which made us all nervous! It was interesting to compare notes at the end of the day – almost all children had just gone for a wad of straws taped together with Sellotape.  However, one boy in P1/2/3 had visited a bridge and remembered details of how the structure was supported.  He then built his bridge single-handedly and put on some railings to stop the cup falling off – this was really unexpected.

In all the classes, staff are talking to the children about engineering and how engineers work and all opportunities are being taken to encourage thinking like engineers. Jo Clark has encouraged P6/7 to create design boards for the Young Imagineers competition run by Statoil.  They had to come up with an engineering idea that could solve a problem for the future, and lots of great ideas were generated. 3 were chosen by the class to enter for the competition; Sarah’s Scaredy Sheep device stops sheep getting stuck on their backs by barking like a dog, Rebecca has designed a device that uses static electricity from clothes to repell rain from your glasses and Lauren has invented a device that knows when the inside of your car gets too hot and sends an alarm to your key.

In the Early Learning and Childcare Centre Alison Logan and Katie Bonar have been making the most of their new equipment. The children have been working together to build bridges and ramps, problem solving to make sure that the structures were sufficiently wide and long for everyone to fit across.  They have also been problem solving to bail out the boat in the outdoor area.  Using lengths of bamboo, they have engineered a solution where bailed water can flow down and be collected at the other end.

 

Thinking about Energy

The first phase of our project has been Thinking about Energy, how important it is to our lives and how we use it. In P6/7 with Jo Clark, children have been working on a farming topic in which they calculated their own carbon footprint and looked at the carbon footprint involved in food production and transport.  They cooked their own low carbon footprint foods for a buffet for pensioners in the local community for Harvest.  They have started work on the School’s Carbon footprint and will complete this next term.

Kate Brown’s P4/5 class have been looking at the energy they use in school and at home.  The devised questionnaires to find out how many different electrical items children had at home and made tables and graphs to show their results.  The class then looked at the energy use of different appliances and were amazed how much energy was used by their showers.  Next term they are going to engage with the community to encourage energy saving and will hopefully be getting hold of some energy meters to look more closely at what we use in school.

P1/2/3 with Maggie Harrison have been finding out what makes their toys work.  As well as looking at forces they have been finding out about toys that produce movement, sound, light and heat and thinking about how energy is needed to make them go.  Linked to their transport topic, they have also thought about what powers different vehicles and designed their own cars and boats.  They have started to Think like Engineers, working in teams on engineering challenges.

We have enlisted the help of George Read from the Islay Energy Trust. Our team also includes Maureen MacDonald, Head Teacher. Maureen began her career at Port Ellen as a class teacher, was promoted to Head Teacher in 2008 and in 2016 became shared HT of Port Ellen and Bowmore Primary Schools.  Having worked with Education Scotland as an Associate Assessor, Maureen has been a member of various teams engaging in evaluative and professional dialogue.  This experience has been invaluable and has influenced practice within the school.  Community involvement and parental engagement feature highly in the work that Maureen does. She has conducted the school Gaelic Choir for many years, achieving national success and helping to raise the profile of Port Ellen Primary School.  During the October holiday the choir have been competing, and winning, at the National Mod!

Moving forward into the next phase of our project. we are looking forward to our first visit from our mentor, Neil Chattle, just after the October break.

 

Young Imagineers Competition

Primary 6&7 have been busy inventing.  They have been creating design boards for the Young Imagineers competition run by Statoil.  They had to come up with a great engineering idea that could solve a problem for the future, and lots of great ideas were generated; extra robotic arms and hands so you can get more done, high viz vests for cows, smart material kneepads that bounce you back when you fall in the playground, the Scooper for stopping ice cream dripping on your hands and lots more.  3 were chosen by the class to enter for the competition; Sarah’s Scaredy Sheep device stops sheep getting stuck on their backs by barking like a dog, Rebecca has designed a device that uses static electricity from clothes to repell rain from your glasses and Lauren has invented a device that knows when the inside of your car gets too hot and sends an alarm to your key.  Good luck in the competition and great engineering!

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