On Friday 7th to Sunday 9th November, 30 boys from Year 9 went to Machynlleth in Wales to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology (http://www.cat.org.uk) to have an eco-weekend learning about sustainability and renewable energy.
The following report has been written by Kyle Cornish, Ed Deathridge, Jake Fletcher, James Michell and Matthew Murray.
We arrived at the centre on Friday to discover our ‘eco cabins’ weren’t like normal residential accommodation. We had to monitoring our electricity and our heating supplied entirely by solar panels, wind and hydro turbines. If we ran out of electricity, we couldn’t use any of the sockets and the lights would go out. The temperature of the hot water for showers depended on a good strong fire, some were more successful that others!
On our first night, we had a vegetarian dinner followed by and activities up to 9pm. We had a number of competitions and tasks based on the eco cabins, learning about a future ‘Zero-Carbon’ Britain. We completed some puzzles and had a game of quick on the draw before heading back to the cabin for games, hot chocolate and pot noodles.
After a good night’s sleep, we started the next day with a guided tour followed by a workshop on wind turbines, presented by staff at CAT. The wind turbine workshop was a competition to see who can design and create the best wind turbine, learning that a small wind turbine was the most efficient. We then had a workshop on Zero Carbon Britain learning how the UK could improve its renewable energy supply. After lunch (vegetarian again) we embarked on the hooded adventure. Ever tried walking around a forest blindfolded with a number of obstacles? We had to follow a rope around a challenging course. In the end, Ed, Matt C and Matt L fell into a pond, someone went round a section of the course in circles and someone who stopped following the rope and followed a stick! We learnt lots about using our senses to explore the nature around us.
In the evening we completed a range of activities including how we could make Sandbach School more eco-friendly and sustainable. In groups of five we created a presentation looking at the possibilities of getting a biomass boiler to save the school money as well as putting solar panels on different buildings around the school. We all agreed that the school should invest in LED lighting technology and improve our recycling around the school. Mr Jennings and Mr Roberts were the judges and they gave us keywords which we had to work into our presentation for bonus points! We then went back to the cabins for games, toasted marshmallows and a much needed sleep.
The final day, we went for our final vegetarian meal and exploration of the site, giving us the opportunity to reflect and review our weekend. We collected a certificate of participation and made a commitment to do something differently in our lives to reduce our impact on the environment. It was a great weekend and everyone slept well on the journey home! Thank you to all the teachers and the staff at the Centre of Alternative Technology.
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