The Executive offered Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk - a national youth organisation with 500 groups across Britain - £26,000 in 2005-06 for a project to take a trailer with energy supply equipment to audiences of young people in the Lothians, as a practical educational tool in the use of sustainable energy. The trailer would demonstrate solar electric and solar thermal power, and the alternative of wind generation.
There was delay in the construction of the trailer. The walls of the trailer carry a much higher load than a normal mass-produced trailer could withstand, so a custom-made trailer had to be built to a particular specification. Work was necessary to fit out the internals of the trailer to house the batteries, water tank and electrical controllers and external work was required to support the PV panels, wind turbine and solar thermal panel.
The trailer once built and delivered had to be fitted with interpretive panels and decorated with an eye-catching livery. For the preparation of information leaflets and informal education packs for the workshops, some hands-on experience of the working trailer was judged necessary to decide on content. The information leaflets required a picture of the finished trailer for it to have any impact.
Peer educators, after a visit to the Centre of Alternative Technology, were very committed and devised workshops to appeal to children and young people of their age. This led to a planned workshop schedule delivered to other Woodcraft groups in the area.
As more people heard informally about the project it generated a lot of interest in the informal and formal education sectors. Geography students invited to a Woodcraft meeting devised lesson plans using the trailer as a resource for teaching Scottish school pupils about citizenship.
School of Chemistry colleagues who deliver a "Chemical Connections" roadshow to schools throughout Scotland expressed an interest in the capabilities of the trailer for demonstrating the physics and chemistry involved in sustainable energy processes. There was also some interest from the co-ordinator of the Eco-Schools programme.
On its first outing the students who had built the trailer and their supervisor were able to field-test most of the fitted components. The photovoltaic panels and wind generator both worked successfully but the solar water heaters and plumbing had several problems which required workshop attention.
Unfortunately on the return journey the axle was bent so the trailer had to be returned to the manufacturers. The decision was made to replace that axle with one which could take a heavier load. This caused a frustrating 5-week delay for the young people who had been looking forward to using the trailer and improving on their workshops which they had been running over the spring and summer terms.
As one of the activities of these workshops was getting feedback, the participants were asked to vote on a name for the renewable energy trailer. "Powerpod" was the favourite of the younger members of the workshops.
In late 2006 the project progressed with the trailer being exhibited at the Scottish Natural Heritage Centre at Battleby near Perth. Over a 2-day conference 70 primary school teachers and 120 secondary school teachers participated in the renewable energy workshops with young people. As a result of this there was a request to exhibit the trailer at an Association of Science Teachers conference in Crieff. There were several requests to visit schools from teachers who had either heard of, or seen, the trailer - though this was dependent on funding.
In November 2006 the trailer and workshops were at Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden as part of their Sunday Science day. They estimated 200-300 members of the general public came to see the trailer. Because of this success there was a request to exhibit the trailer in the Botanic Garden during the Edinburgh International Science Festival in April 2007.
The trailer was used as part of the "Chemical Connections" roadshow at Grangemouth High School. Over 2 days 180 S1 children were educated about the physics and chemistry of renewable energy. This was well received by both pupils and teachers.
The young people of Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk were short-listed for the Environmental Action Young Edinburgh Award, though were not successful in gaining the overall prize.
Contact
Dr Ronald Brown
Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk
Tel: 0131 650 7532
Woodcraft Folk Scotland
87 Bath Street
Glasgow G2 2EE
Tel: 0141 304 5552