On the 31st of March one of our school janitors, Finlay, gave us a tour around our schools biomass boiler and gas boiler.  Firstly we went into the biomass boiler and were shown where the pellets go in and there travel through to becoming energy. This boiler produces energy for both the sports centre and part of the school. We then went down into the gas boiler room where there were several boilers that controlled the heating for different parts of the school.

Last week the other girls and I went on a trip to Johnstons of Elgin. Johnstons is a place which makes cashmere jumpers and scarf and more. We got split into two groups and were given tours.  They showed us all the different processes in which the wool went through before becoming the finished product.  We saw the wool in the bundles in the store, the dyeing it in its batches, the quality checking and all the other processes. Overall the trip was a good experience and  we learned a lot about the making of clothing.

You may have read in a previous post that the class has been following the exploits of the newly appointed meteorologist at Halley VI station in the Antarctic. We are looking at energy use, STEM careers and employability skills related to the British Antarctic Survey and Halley VI base.

The girls thought that as Carolyn would be away from home for the next year she would appreciate a Christmas message from Banff Academy to let her know we were thinking about her. See the following video.

In reply was a Christmas greeting from the Antarctic, written on the side of a weather balloon which was carried 30km above the Antarctic as it sent vital weather information back to earth. Here is the picture of the launch.

Carolyn also sent a copy of the data returned, so that the class could analyse it.

Now that’s Science!

The class were issued with fleeces provided by Shell for their field trips, so we took the opportunity to get some class photos and sent a message to our contact at Halley Base in Antarctica that we have been corresponding with.

On 2nd December, the class paid a visit to a company called 3M in Aberdeen.

Friday 18th November saw a good turnout for the annual Shell  conference. Girls in Energy groups came from Banff, Mintlaw, Peterhead, Turriff and two schools in Fife to meet at Shell’s meeting and conference facility near Cults called Woodbank.

This year’s challenge was based on the Shell Bright Ideas Challenge. To create a solution/idea and think about how technology can be applied to create cleaner and more efficient energy by 2050.

The girls were split into sixteen teams of five with each member of a team being from a different school. The teams were then asked to prepare to ‘pitch’ their idea/solution to a panel of ‘dragons/judges’ in a four-minute presentation.

The judges were extremely impressed with the knowledge of the pupils, their innovative ideas and their presentation skills and they had a hard time deciding the winners which were as follows

1st Place – TrainGen – producing power from the London Underground – Claire’s Team

2nd Place – Students Run The School – A pupil powered school – Abbie’s Team

3rd Place – Oakay Energy – An energy ‘tree’ to help power our towns and cities – Destiny’s Team

Congratulations to all those students that took part. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves and learned some valuable team working skills.

This week we skyped Carolyn and she told us about what she’s going to be doing whilst working in Antarctica. Carolyn is leaving on Sunday and she’ll be staying at Halley 5 for a year, whilst she’s there she’ll be working as a meteorologist, watching the weather, reporting it and launching weather balloons to track temperature changes. We asked lots of questions about what her expectations for her trip to Halley and what she thinks it’ll be like.

Today we were also in the workshop finishing our solar hot water systems. Here are some pictures of us making them.

On the 28th of October, Banff travelled to Mintlaw for a day full of excitement.  Upon arrival, we walked into Mintlaw’s academy(Where I saw my cousin!!!!!!), and went to  an assembly thing where we got out first glance at the other YWIE gals. We were presented with our electrifying electric blue laptops, which Shell kindly gifted us for the road ahead. There was this boy who was presenting out laptops and Jodie and Rosie thought he was pleasing to the eye. After we gratefully accepted our laptops, we stood in the freezing cold and got a photo. After this Pam made everyone walk to Aden-Een as “Not everyone had buses”. However we were not putting up with that. So Mike drove and we lolled the whole way there.  As we arrived at Aden-Een before the other groups, we changed into our boiler suits and boots, which was lucky because by the time we changed everyone else arrived. I also borrowed socks from Alison. We then walked into the main square and me and Hannah discovered that we had went there many a time during our wonderful primary school trips. We were then sorted into groups and we set off on a quest.

The different groups had to participate in activities. My group was setting up the attractions, and Pam made me break Betty. Betty was a stick with a mask and a dress and mine was stuck in the ground and Pam made me move it then the stick snapped. Jodie also claimed she was allergic to egg which wasn’t true. She just didn’t want to make egg sandwiches. After this we met Colin the bus driver  who drove us to a hockey game also in Mintlaw on a different week. (WE WON FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS!!!!!! B T DUBS) Colin was very happy to see us. Then we drove home.

Today in energy we were learning about how having an untidy workplace is unsafe. We were also continuing with our assessments on renewable energy.  Plans were being made so we knew who was doing what in our groups for making the Solar hot water panels. In the workshop we began to start making our panels by bending the copper pipe.

Today we planned our solar hot water systems. We figured out which tasks we would have to do to complete these systems and what tools would be required.