This term, our topic has been about investigating STEM Heroes. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Last week the children were extremely lucky to visit Eigg Electric to find out a bit more about how the grid that powers the island worked. Bob, Neil, Gabe, Ben and Mr Merrick were all on hand to guide the pupils around the site and share some knowledge about how it all comes together! Here they are to tell you what they learned…

P6 Learner V
We learned about the solar panels, they started off with a small amount and then got some more and then they’ll maybe get even more one day. Neil talked to us about how they were made and where they came from. I think maybe some of them came from China.

P3 Learner
They use the solar panels, the hydro power and wind turbines to create energy and it travels to through to the batteries in the shed, that’s where it’s stored. There are so many batteries!

P5 Learner
They have machines that tell them how much energy is being used – there’s usually a spike in the morning when people wake up and put their kettles on for their morning teas and coffees!We could see it on the graph, they were having a cupa tì!

P3 Learner
For the hydro, the water goes through a turbine filter thing and the energy is drawn from there. I think when the water hits the rocks afterwards it’s pretty quiet because the energy has been taken away, it mutes. The hydro is built into the burns and you have to go into the burn if there’s anything that needs looked at to fix – there’s a valve that you need to undo. I’ll maybe work there when I’m older, we’ll see!

P2 Learner R
My favourite part was when we got to punch the box to make it light up – we had to be really strong! (strong agreement from the rest of the class!) and finding out we’re all robots when Neil showed us what they use to find electric cables (strong agreement from the rest of the class)!

P6 Learner V
My favourite part was learning about the solar panels, it was really interesting – they all face towards the sun, where they’ll get most of the sun when it’s going across the sky. It’s cool that it takes in that light and can create energy from it. They also took quite a while to build, it’s really impressive.

P3 Learner
I think they started off with four and then added a few more but they’ll not build any more? Maybe more wind turbines now – we get so much wind here, it’ll help – I doubt we’ll run out! We need all three because sometimes there’s not enough sun for the solar panels or not enough rain for the hydro and THEN not enough wind for the turbine. Not all the time though, most of the time there’s enough to do something, and if there’s not, that’s when the generators kick in. When that happens you have to go to the electric shed to switch them on; Dad, Bob, Neil, Gabe, Mr Merrick do that, even if there’s power cuts in the middle of the night!

P5 Learner
When there’s not quite enough energy, it’s good to think about what we’re using to keep the electricity low. Things that generate heat are I think use the most energy?

P3 Learner
We’re going to create a challenge for ourselves to reduce the amount of energy we use in school – we can use our OWL metres to help us to be able to tell.

P2 Learner R
We can turn off our light switches, and our plugs.

P3 Learner
We can challenge Eigg to do the same for a week and see what happens.

Watch this space, Isle of Eigg…a challenge may be coming your way!

A special thank you to the Eigg Electric Team for such a lovely, informative and interactive morning and for everything that goes in to keeping the grid running – what an operation!

Final question: If you could invent something that uses renewable energy to make your life easier (can be silly, can be functional, can be functional and silly), what would it be?