Renewable energy

This week we have been looking at forms of renewable energy. We had a talk from Orkney energy advice last week and learned how advanced Orkney is in developing renewables. It makes us quite proud to be part of something so important for the planet. 

We all listened really carefully to the information that
Elizabeth from the Energy Advice Centre gave us.

We made our own wind farm in the classroom and tested different energy forms with a special piece of equipment. It had different attachments and indicators to try. There was a buzzer, flashing lights, cogs and a meter to measure how much energy we created.

our wind farm

This one tested solar power.

This one is for testing wind power

and this one is a water turbine - some of us got quite wet testing this one!

You can see us testing them and some of the results we got in the video below. Some indicators worked better than others.

We did a short wind survey by using an anemometer which measures wind speed. We tested 3 different locations around the school - the back playground, front playground and the courtyard. The front playground recorded the highest reading on the Beaufort scale. We found that the wind was coming in gusts, especially in the courtyard. It made an interesting graph when we were finished!

Measuring the wind

We decided that Orkney is a good place for a wind farm as we get plenty of wind!

Another form of energy produced in Orkney is wave power so we made our own Pelamis models from pieces of tubing, plastic and elastic bands. We tested them in a basin - some were successful but some sank because the plasticine we used to seal the tubes was too heavy.

Following instructiions

measuring carefully

a model ready to test

testing is successful for this one!

Some items don't use batteries or need plugged in to power. 

Sunshine buddies use solar power

This radio is solar powered and can be
wound up by hand

We made a dynamo torch from a kit

There's a handle to wind it up.

Black History Month story telling

Last week we had a special visitor from Kenya. Her name was Mara Menzies and she visited as part of Black history month to tell us some stories from her own culture.
It was a very dramatic presentation and she involved everyone in her stories. She had bright, colourful costumes for everyone to wear and she showed us the different ways to put them on.
She selected people from the audience to act out parts in her stories and even had one pupil 'flying' on her back!
You can see from the slideshow below how much we all enjoyed her presentation. 
She brought some things to show us too. Some were made out of dried gourds and there was jewellery with intricate and colourful beadwork.
It has given us some ideas for story telling next term when we look at Scottish and Orcadian folk tales! I wonder if we can present a story as entertaining as hers!