Sustainable schooling in Kirklees

Members of northern based solar/bike powered PA collective Yorkshire Solar Sound
yesterday (july 9th) demonstrated the possibility of running a modern ICT
(information and computing technology) classroom powered only by the sun and pedal
power as a contribution to a local high schools 'Big Green Day'.

A range of workshops and activities at the school, a large state secondary
school up on the hillside in the beautiful Colne Valley, were designed to get year
6-9 pupils thinking about green issues such as recycling, reducing waste, renewable
energy and the importance of community activities. Pupils also got to try their hand
at citizen journalism courtesy of local online radio station, Two Valleys radio, who
had set up their caravan and were teaching groups how to interview people for radio.
A range of other activities included drumming workshops and talks on the importance
recycling.

Yorkshire Solar Sound set up a large tent on the grass outside the school and had
brought with them solar panels which were generating around half a kilowatt of
electricity and 3 bike generators. This was inverted to mains voltage by way of an
uninterruptable power supply. The classroom was set up with 16 laptops for the
pupils to use for their lesson, all internet capable and connected to the school
network.

The workshops, for years 6 and 7 pupils as part of their ICT curriculum, began with
a discussion on how energy is produced and why we need to switch to alternative
methods. The children seemed fairly knowledgable about the different ways in which
energy can be produced in a sustainable way and seemed happy to put their hands up
to suggest other ways.

The workshops then centred around how to save power at home, and many spoke about
the needs to switch off lights, not leave things on standby and things like that.
Leaving computer games on pause for long periods of time and charging equipment
unnecessarily was also talked about.

Following the explanation about how the 'power station' outside the tent worked, the
pupils then used the computers to make presentations about how to save energy, and
why it is important. They all seemed enthusiastic and hopefully gained something
from it.

With the sun shining intermittently all day, the batteries in the classroom held out
and a total of 6 large groups attended the workshops before the end of the school
day, where all those who had done workshops talked enthusiastically about the days
success, and hoped that the knowledge would be taken on board and kept in mind for
the future by the pupils.

Contact email: contact@yorkshiresolarsound.co.uk