School Energy Workshops

September was a hive of busyness across 4 of our churches Bramfield, Holton, Halesworth and Wenhaston as Halesworth ASH and the Blyth Valley Churches worked together for the Energy Action Weekend. Pauline Milstead, the Children and Family Minister worked with Halesworth ASH to provide school Energy Workshops. We saw an incredible 95 children through our workshops at Bramfield, from Bramfield Preschool, Primary School and Bramfield House School, we saw 63 at Wenhaston and 40 at Holton.
Our top question was will potatoes save the world as a new energy source? The answer was sadly, probably not. The potato clock or light bulb experiment, is where we used the potatoes as a battery to power either an alarm clock or light bulb. It took a lot of potatoes to light one tiny light bulb, we thought we might need a million potatoes to light a house. As one child pointed out this is not a renewable energy source as there isn’t enough potatoes, and where would we grow them all?Report

Another experiment looked at hydropower and how we can use water to create energy that can be converted into electricity. Children loved making their own water wheel and seeing the force of the water turn it and pick up an object. Some of the children at Bramfield got very technical, working out adding things like paper clips to some of the buckets could support the wheel to turn more efficiently. There was some enthusiastic problem-solving and hypothesising to see what would work best.

The children at Wenhaston had an interesting debate about electric cars verses petrol cars. Which are better? Is an electric car a renewable energy source? If I charged it using solar panels, yes. However, as one child said, but the batteries in electric cars contain elements which are very bad for the environment and don’t last very long. Another child asked if can make a car charged completely by solar panels? Some said how electric cars are unaffordable for many, and we don’t have many charging points, whereas petrol is easily accessible. People cannot hear electric cars which may cause people to be run over!

We made wind turbines, shared stories and had a lot of fun. Those who wanted to wrote their own prayers and some were displayed at the Climate Action Weekend. The pros and cons of Sizewell C, electric verses petrol cars, ways to save energy, wind farms, the children explored these systems, built on each other’s ideas, but also challenged and added in a respectful way.

Pauline Milstead said “It was a pleasure to share these workshops with all that came. Each session was inspiring to me in a different way!”