The Edinburgh International Science Festival features the Powerpod!

The Edinburgh International Science Festival was held over the 2 weeks spanning the Easter weekend and proved to be a busy time for the Powerpod crew. With drop in activities throughout the six days from the 7th to the 12 th April and running 2 workshops on both Easter Sunday and Easter Monday the facilitators had to rise to the occasion - This they all did with great confidence - for several of them this was their first real chance at doing the workshops to a very mixed audience.










This being Edinburgh in the school holidays the young people talked, demonstrated and played with over 3000 vistors from many parts of the UK and several overseas visitors. An Italian family were so pleased with what they saw they asked if there was a similar organisation in thier country - and having camped with the Aciragazzi in 2003 we were able to assure them that Italy too had a dynamic, progressive organisation with young people who wanted to make a difference.

As part of the "Science Festival at the Botanics" the Edinburgh Woodcraft Powerpod, a trailer fitted out as an education tool to demonstrate the use of renewable energy, was a major exhibit at the entrance to the Botanics Exhibition Hall. The full science program at the Botanics attracted in excess of 10000 visitors and many of these joined in the hands-on activities supplied by the Powerpod. As well as the drop in activities Edinburgh Woodcraft ran 4 workshop sessions offering co-operative games devised by the Venturers and DFs around the issues of climate change and renewable energy. As well as appearing in the main programme Edinburgh Woodcraft were named on the brochures as one of the sponsors of the event, publicity which we normally cannot afford.

The next official outing for the Powerpod is Big in Falkirk Scotland's National Steet Arts Festival on the 5th/6th May where we shall be helping the Central Scotland Area Committee of the Scottish Co-op in thier Fair Trade and Sustainability tent.

Powerpod Project Group success at Young Scots Awards 2007

The Powerpod Project group gained the Environmental Award at the Young Scots 2007 ceremony at the City Halls in Glasgow on the 29th March.

They were presented the prize by Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson who had earlier expressed her joy at seeing the Woodcraft Folk on the shortlist as she was an ex-Woodcraft leader herself.

They were also offered a prize by Scottish Gas the sponsors of the award of a visit to one of their windfarms as well as wild water rafting on the Tay.

The evening was sponsored by the Sunday Mail and Lloyds TSB and a wonderful Mardi Gras theme with Brazilian dancers and steel drums featuring heavily in the opening ceremony.

The award was accepted on behalf of the group by Gordon Bruce, Zoe Hutchison and Lindsey Riddoch.

Powerpod visits Our Dynamic Earth

The Powerpod was invited to be part of the childrens' activities at the Green Houses - carbon free living? exhibition at Our Dynamic Earth on the 17th and 18 th March, 2007. There were lots of stalls exhibiting solar panels, wind turbines, wood-burning stoves etc, as well as the activities provided by SciFun and ourselves.This was put together by the BA as part of the Science week exhibition.

The weekend did not get off to a good start when it was found the the Powerpod could not join the exhibition as it proved too wide to get up the wheelchair ramp. Therefore after a lot of dicussion between ourselves and the Dynamic Earth staff it was set up in the turning cirdle beside their outside exhibit. However this proved unworkable due to the noise of this and the isolation of the trailer and the other exhibitor. So we shut it down and concentrated on our wind and solar workshops up in the gallery.

Both days proved to have busy and quiet periods allowing us to play around with the other exhibits and find out what was happeneing in the commercial world of renewable energy.

On Sunday we were allowed to visit the "Our Dynamic Earth" exhibition itself - and lots of fun was had by all!

If you visited us here we would appreciate any feedback - good or bad!

Powerpod at James Gillespies High School, Edinburgh

The young people had a chance to show to some of their school compatriots what all the excitement is about. The Powerpod and the peer educators were invited to do their stuff at James Gillespies High School Edinburgh on Wednesday 14 th March. So with the weather cool but dry the workshops were able to remain outside beside the Powerpod. With over 9 classes of 20 pupils scheduled to visit the workshops over the course of the day it was going to be a very busy session - but thankfully there was nearly a full contingent of young people there to carry things along and share the tasks. As far as could be judged everyone enjoyed their day and pleasant things were said about the young people by their appreciative teachers.

The young people were also interviewed for the Young Scots Award - they have been nominated for the envoronment award we wish them all the best!

A big thank you to Mr. Wallace for allowing us to be part of the school for the day and many thanks to Curt Finnemore and Anne Lyall for organising the visit.

If you were able to come to this we would appreciate your feedback - just click on comment below!

Energy Storage Workshop

The energy storage workshop is all about how we store energy when we do not need it. Renewables being as they are, are dependant on the vagaries of nature, we cannot always rely on the wind being there when we need it or the power from the sun at night - so we must store any excess energy until it is required.
One of the most common ways is storing it is in a battery and the workshop is all about explaining how these work. There is the fruit battery, which is always a good exhibit and making your own voltaic pile.

Another way of storing it is by the production of hydrogen from the electolysis of water. Electricity is then produced on demand from hydrogen fuel cells. The use of hydrogen fuel cells is demonstrated using both a model fuel cell and a fuel cell car.

Powerpod at Crieff

STOP NEWS - Edinburgh Woodcraft gain funding from the Big Lottery Fund!

STOP NEWS - Edinburgh Woodcraft Folk and the Powerpod project reach the finals of the Young Scots 2007 awards

The Powerpod was one of the exhibits at the Association for Science Education(Scotland) AGM, Crieff on the 9th and 10th of March. The Powerpod was parked in front of the Foyer with the Peer Educators undercover in the foyer entrance. As well as the Powerpod the conference attendees were able to see and hear the peer educators at work on three tables of workshops and a poster session. The exhibit was also visited by 60 year 1 pupils from Crieff High School.



If you attended this event we would appreciate your feedback.







Other exhibitors that caught the eye were

The educational kits from solar and wind applications

The puppets project allowed us to take the puppets to the Powerpod. The venturers used them to produce a play - we definitly need to get some of these.

Powerpod

The Edinburgh Woodcraft Powerpod is a portable educational tool to show the use of sustainable energy. The trailer demonstrates solar electric and solar thermal power, and the alternative of wind generation.

The Powerpod can offer peer-education workshops on renewable energy to schools, colleges, public events, conferences and more. They are also called upon as a power source – because renewable energy does work!

More details can be found at…

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/SustainableDevelopment/EWFenergytrailer

http://j.r.corney.googlepages.com/powerpod