Author: Mrs Tulloch

Science, Biology and Chemistry teacher.

Wider Achievements

Our Secondary 1 and 2 pupils have timetabled 2 periods of Wider Achievement each week, for this term and next term we aim to have pupils working outside. At the beginning of this term, some pupils were working on their entries for the Yell Show, where pupils got a range of prizes at the Yell show at the weekend – well done to them for their Computer Art and all the other entries all our pupils had in, from pet dogs to knitting.

Other activities which have been happening this term are:- sanding and painting school benches; clearing out planters from around the school. What a great job the pupils have done today and each Wednesday building their skills and working around our school.

Peat Restoration

Our S1/2 Wider achievement Group 1 got the opportunity today to learn about Peat Restoration from the Shetland Amenity Trust Peatland ACTION project Officers Sue and Ash and Logan – Natural Heritage Officer.

We started by picking up Sphagnum Moss from next to the roadside and then we dropped the sphagnum moss in the sides of pools of water throughout the heathery hill nearby. We saw where dams had been constructed before to aid the moisture retention of the peat which had been left exposed.

Over the last few months there has been diggers converting the dried out peat hags into areas with less peat exposed. Therefore us being there to plant sphagnum moss so it can re-establish will improve the peat restoration process.

Ash, Sue and Logan spoke about the carbon emitted from exposed peat, the impact we can have on the planet and the demand for people to choose to work in the Peat Restoration industry which is still quite new for shetland (10 years). Group 1 will take part in dam building next week, with groups 2 and 3 getting the same opportunity later on this term.

Thanks to Ash, Sue and Logan for a very educational afternoon spend in the outdoors. To find out more about their work go to Peatland ACTION Project

3D Webtech workshop

Last week our new S2 and S3 class were invited to the UHI Shetland, Lerwick campus to design their own windfarm. Two folk travelled up from Manchester to provide the workshop which was an action packed day. See more at
http://https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sse-renewables_shetland-stem-lerwick-activity-7001921354220371968-t0l0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Here is also a write up about it on SSE Renewables page
http://https://www.sserenewables.com/news-and-views/2022/04/shetland-schools-experience-virtual-reality-as-part-of-viking-wind-farm-stem-programme/

They got to design their windfarm and then they had to work out how much money they would manage to spend, earn and what their profits were. Getting the opportunity to use VR headsets to look around a windfarm.

Zero Carbon Learning workshops

Today we were very lucky to have Built Environment – Smarter Transformation – BE-ST (http://https://www.be-st.build/) in school.

Two ladies travelled up from their Innovation Centre in Blantyre to come to visit our school and others. The sessions covered Retrofit, Passivhaus and Digital Construction.
Thanks so much to them for coming to our school – it would have been hard for us to get all our pupils to them.

Here a few pupils on the Passivhaus Taping and airtightness workshop, are learning how to correctly apply an air tightness membrane to an internal wall face and airtightness tape to a ‘window’ reveal.

An excellent opportunity to learn industrial standard skills and to get an insight into what is happening in terms of zero carbon building. It was also great to hear from them that Shetland firms are already adopting alot of zero carbon measures.