We
do
quite a lot of educational projects now, but one of the problems
with
trying to promote that side of the activity is that taking photos is
not
allowed in most schools.
The most important aspect of our school projects is
participation
- making sure that all the children actually experience generating
their
own electricity so that they can get a practical understanding
of electrical units and the scale of power.
The amount of energy needed to power filament type and
low energy fluorescent or LED lights, charge a phone or run a stereo
can
be directly felt.
As we can only provide four or five pedal units plus
some handcrank devices, we often work with half a class, combining with
a Council energy or recycling presentation who take the other half for
a 20 minute or half hour session. Several classes can have a session in
a day.
Apart from the pedal generators, we can provide
demonstrations
of other small scale energy generators such as wind and solar power,
and
the 'Watt
Box' which shows the effect of a Watt
of power when expressed as heat, light, mechanical power or sound.
For smaller groups we can facilitate practical
workshops
- these LED
windmills were made by a school 'eco-club',
and this 8 metre tall plastic drainpipe tower
was built in an activity day at a local school.
It's difficult to get our regular volunteers on
weekdays,
especially outside our local area; three or four people are needed for
basic safety supervision of pedal generators. Most schools have
provided
their own local volunteers, often interested parents or governors.
It's also worth mentioning that several pedal generators and LED discs and windmills have been built in places as far away as Australia and America by children and teachers using designs from our DIY pages (and that's just the ones we know about as they emailed to ask for help).