Hot Blows Cold in Renewable Energy Education
By Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk
There is an essential need to get children on side to influence the future use of energy. The effects of climate change are gaining pace and our legacy to the next generation looks appalling. The clock is ticking and our children will need to hit the ground running to have measurable and immediate effect. Educational curriculum in renewable energy must be reinforced to ensure this happens.
To emphasise the significance of renewable energy it may be easier for kids to understand energy falls into one of two groups. Hot energy and cold energy.
Hot energy involves the use of Heat to convert a fuel into energy in power stations. The fuel used; coal, oil or radio active is Hauled great distances – also using fuel in the transport process. The by-product of the hot energy group is Hazardous waste in the form of Hydrocarbons and spent nuclear fuel. History will recall the legacy handed to future generations.
Hot energy summary:
* heat,
* hauled,
* hydrocarbons,
* hazardous.
Cold energy – the green group. Cold, as there is no heat source used, Clean because there are no emissions, Continuing – as long as the planet exists and Climate friendly because there is no fuel excavated or waste product to be disposed. In this group are solar, wind turbine, tide and wave energy. It is clean, producing no gasses from combustion and no heat is involved (apart from the small amount occurring in the generator itself) Hydroelectric power also falls into this group, but we have excluded it as there is some inevitable environmental damage in the production of dams ( and also it is a nuisance having a H power in the C category!) Similarly geothermal is a green form of energy and should be in the cold list- but involves heat and limited to locations that have geothermal activity.
Cold energy summary:
* cold
* clean
* continuing source
* climate friendly
In ten years the current negative effects on the climate will have progressed significantly. Politicians and pressure groups have a huge task to convince let alone convert the population. Progress will inevitably be ponderously slow. OK it may rain a little more and temperatures are perhaps out of seasonable kilter but do we really need to worry? The lights are still on, and there’s fuel at the petrol station. Ambivalence is set to prevail. We need another severe shortage to focus the attention. Price rises merely isolate the lower paid. The saviours of the planet may be yet to hit the streets. If we are to achieve the quantum leap to the significance use of renewable energy time has to be invested in educating children on the full implications of climate change. Their enthusiasm, untainted by our old ways will have a huge benefit in the rate of change towards renewable energy.
Energy is a fascinating subject interlacing many areas of the National Curriculum. As a central theme of the latest educational policy, renewable energy can have no better application. Maths, English, Science, Geography and History all play a part in building a child’s essential knowledge bank in climate change and green energy. Ideally, learning seen by children to be fun holds their attention and greatly improves the learning curve. The use of educational games to support green energy will help feed their interest and imagination more than text books.
There is also the benefit of child influence at home. How often are we corrected by our children on issues they are learning at school? The enthusiasm of the young can be very infectious and a great way to prick the conscience. And we certainly need to make the choice between hot and cold, bad and good forms of energy vastly more focused.
