Report by Ela and Ellie…
Today, Aileen and Ross from the Glasgow Science Centre team came to our school with their roadshow called ‘Future Fuels’. Aileen told us about Fossil Fuels and why it is so important to find renewable energy sources. She showed us an experiment using methanol and demonstrated the Fire Triangle which needs Oxygen, heat and fuel to work. The tiny amount of methanol made a huge bang when the Fire Triangle was completed but this is not something which can be easily controlled. It can be super dangerous (that’s why she demonstrated it wearing safety goggles and using safety equipment!)
She told us about research which is going into some amazing projects like the Solar Array in California, the Hydrogen Plant outside of Rome, Italy, the Solar Car Race which is held in Australia (Kaiden and Katie competed – the KGs!- competed in a mini version of this using a tiny car with a solar panel and a torch as the light source) and the Solar Impulse II which is an solar panelled plane! It took 505 days to travel all the way around the world so not handy for your summer holidays in the sunshine just yet, but maybe in the future!
Ross then demonstrated all ten exhibits which we were allowed to play with and investigate the different renewable power sources. The exhibits were called:
Directional Drilling Nuclear Reactor Solar Array Windmill Kit
Million Watt Drop Three Phase Generator Crank Power 50 Hz
Hydrogen Launcher Hand Crank Generator
We had a great morning finding out about Science of the Future! Thanks to Ross and Aileen for visiting us.
