RENEWABLE ENERGY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
RENEWABLE ENERGY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING [REEL] PROGRAMME
making renewable energy
REEL 2-day Module
Day 1 (Field Trip – All Day)
Visit the technologies in action – Dartington Solar Farm, Dartington Wood Chip Boiler, Totnes Weir Hydro, Marley Wind Turbine.
Introdctution to Renewable Technologies (Solar, Wind, Hydro and AD).
Day 2 (3 Workshops – All Day)
A making day to creatively explore the science behind the technologies: such as building simple Archimedes screws (hydro workshop); experimenting with solar panel electronics, simple cells and lemon batteries (solar workshop); and making a vertical axis wind turbine (wind workshop). Each workshop provides an introduction to the technologies and student-led critical thinking around our global need for energy.
Optional Day 3 (Presentations and Feedback Session – 2 hours)
There is the option to extend the programme by adding a student project. TRESOC can return to the school for a 3rd time to be part of the project presentations and give feedback. This can also be an opportunity to invite parents into school.
We offer the REEL programme free to local primary schools. To give the programme longevity, we’d also like to continue to work with each school, on a yearly basis, to enable the school to run the programme themselves. This is already happening successfully with St Christopher’s Prep School Staverton. REEL will be run there for the sixth time this June.
The REEL Project wishes to thank its partner and sponsor organisations in helping to deliver this exciting school programme to schools around the district.
REEL Delivery Partners
We’ve created an education programme to encourage learning about renewable energy technologies – how they work, how they fit into the local landscape and how they address wider energy issues. We offer this to schools for free.
The programme brings relevance to energy generation by introducing the students to the hydro, solar and wind schemes that are right on their doorstep, generating electricity for local people. It brings experts into the school environment – local organisations and businesses who specialise in technology, investment, sustainability, ecology, learning and sharing, including Hydrosense, Fishtek, Beco Solar, Regen, South Brent Community Energy Society, Dartington Hall Trust, Quintas, RES, Octopus and Art& Energy. We are grateful to all of them for their time, and to our funders; private individuals, the Rural Community Energy Fund, the Redress Energy Innovation Scheme and the Chacegrove Family Foundation.
Supporting STEM
Each school project supports joined up skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), encourages girls in STEM subjects through female role modelling, and, opens a dialog with each school about energy conservation, CO2 reduction and on-site renewables. More broadly, REEL demonstrates that there is a tangible way to make a difference when messages about climate change are overwhelmingly disempowering.
In June 2017, with the help of the Bioregional Learning Centre, we launched the pilot REEL project at St Christopher’s Prep School Staverton. Since then we have run sixteen projects at eight schools: St Christopher’s, Park School Dartington, Landscove Primary, Stoke Gabriel Primary, On Track (Dartington), the Grove Primary (Totnes), St John’s Primary (Totnes) and Harbertonford Primary. Approximately, 445 children have now taken part, over 25 members of staff and many more parents.
Get in touch
If you’re interested in bringing REEL to a local school we would love to hear from you. For more information please get in touch with Sally Murrall-Smith, our REEL Project Coordinator: admin@tresoc.co.uk
PROJECT GALLERY
REEL collaboration on Soundart Radio
