So welcome back to another Spencer Laube blog post. In this edition of Spencer’s blog we will be talking about our latest project. The inquiry question for this project was how can we capture renewable energy from nature? To get into more detail the project was to create a working generator from scratch that would able to take different energy sources such as the sun or rushing water and change them into electricity.

One of the first things that we did was go on a field trip. This field trip was to the Mission hydro dam. The interesting thing about this dam is that it was turned into a museum so that school groups like us could come through and learn first hand how hydro electricity was made. It was very interesting to see the different steps that need to be taken in order to turn rushing or falling water into electrical energy that can be taken and sent to many different homes around the lower mainland.

 

Alright now back to the project. So after we got back from the field trip we were put into groups to create the generators. My group consisted of Ryan, Ruby and Claire. We set off to create our generator. We started to brainstorm the best type of renewable energy and in our opinion we thought that a water wheel would be the best. We came to this conclusion because of the consistency that the water wheel brings. If you were to use a solar panel as a source of electricity you would get half as much due to the sun not being out in the night.

So we set off to start building it. I asked our teacher Mr. Gross if he had any old meter sticks or wooden dowels and sure enough he did. So I took two wooden dowels that I had cut in half and stuck them together with ducktape. I did this 3 times so that we would have 6 arms. After we had 3 sets of 6 arms I taped them all together to make a wheel. I cut a piece of 2 inch pvc as a spacer and glued that to the wheel. After that I glued the entire assembly to a crank and that was our generator.

After we were done our generator it was time to create an infomercial for it. Our group decided to make it where two people were lost in the forest with no power or no way to find help. A super hero named electro boy came to the rescue to save our people in need. He brings them the generator to help them charge their phone so they can call for help.

So at the beginning of this unit our teacher Mr. Gross told us to create a mind map of what we know elite we started the unit. Here is the before unit mind map.

So when we had finished the unit the requirement was still the same. Create a mind map of what you know now that you have finished the electricity unit for Grade ten. Her it is.