Helston Community School
Surfing the Windy Web
Subject: D&T
Age: Secondary
Students: The whole school was involved |
Location: South-West
Year: 2008
Grant: £2892
|
Teacher: Mr Roger McMinn
Scientist: Dr Dean Millar, University of Exeter
From the initial, pupil-led idea to build a wind turbine on the school site, this Partnership Grants project has really taken off - blowing fresh ideas into Cornish science, and inspiring a national competition for schools as well as a local radio series!
Modelling the wind turbine.
The idea behind this project was to purchase a wind turbine, and have the science club (self-selecting) build the turbine themselves, with some help from their partner. They then connected the turbine to a battery, which provides the power to run one eco-quiet computer, supplied by RM. The pupils then collected wind speed data, and presented it on their own website (http://www.surfingthewindyweb.co.uk/), which is continually updated.
The rest of the school is made aware of this project via the large-screen monitor that displays the website data at the entrance to the science department. The whole school has become involved, from younger mathematicians plotting graphs of the data, to A level chemists performing titrations on the battery acid to make sure it's of the right chemical make-up.
In March, representatives from RM computers visited the school, and were so impressed that they launched a national competition for 100 schools to receive a wind turbine and eco-quiet computer, to emulate this project. RadioCornwall has also been involved, and the Windy Webbers' team leader, Annie Tisdale, was offered a 6-slot radio programme of her own, talking about environmental issues around Cornwall.
Read more about this project in the Association for Science Education's Education in Science magazine: