Blowing in the Wind!

Let's get the party started

2007-11-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

Today we spent most of the day gardening, writing and drawing. We were also designing and organising. This party on Wednesday is going to be something special. We have had some great acceptance cards back from invited guests.

Eureka !

2007-11-06T02:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we all went out when Mr Cordiner was finished connecting up the circuit to see the water fountain working!

It was very cold!

This is a picture of some of us with our hands on the water fountain!

Mr 'Sparky' Cordiner in action!

2007-11-06T02:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while we were all filling up the pond, Mr Cordiner was connecting up the the turbine and the solar panel to the batteries and the batteries to the water fountain.

This is a picture of Mr Cordiner grinning because he was so relived, happy and pleased that it had worked.

Pouring in the water

2007-11-06T01:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday once we had all handed the bucket down the line, we thought that we'd give Geoff the privilege of pouring the first bucket into the pond.

This is a picture of Geoff pouring in the first bucket!

Filling the pond

2007-11-06T01:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we all lined up in a big long line from Mrs Nicol's sink all the way to our water fountain!
The idea was that Mrs Nicol was to fill up the buckets and we all had to hand it down the line.

This is a picture of Mrs Nicol handing the first bucket on to Dana.

We used 24 buckets of water.

You are invited!

2007-11-02T03:25:00.000-07:00

We had to write invitations to all the people which the Pupil Council decided to invite. The invite designs are by pupils who won our design competition. They will find out who they are today. We can't wait for the party!

Friday Date

2007-10-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

A date has been made between Ms Francis, Mr Cordiner (Keith Grammar School) and two Keith Grammar School Young Engineers/Ex St Thomas pupils to connect up the turbine, solar panel and pump on Friday...watch this space

Digging for Gold?

2007-10-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

Whilst the builders were drilling and screwing our turbine to the wall Geoff looked like he was digging for treasure! He was actually digging our reservoir for the water feature! He worked very hard today and hardly noticed the cold...

The Builders Arrive

2007-10-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

Hi, Today the builders arrived along with the janitor and blacksmith!
They climbed on to the roof and before we knew it we had a turbine spinning above our very heads. All we have to do now is to stop gazing at it when we should be doing our sums/handwriting!

Let it flow......

2007-10-08T07:34:00.003-07:00

After assembly today we all went out to the Sensory Garden to watch as Geoff and Mr Farrell turned the fountain on. We were all very excited and cheered loudly as the water began to trickle down our mosaic hands! It was soooooooooooooooooo cooooooooooooold! BRrrrrrrr

Putting the domes together

2007-10-08T07:34:00.001-07:00

The domes are now completely covered by mosaic hands and we are working on the slabs that will be around the edge of the fountain. Geoff is going to put all the domes together now so we can see a bit more how it will look in the end.

Technical hitch?

2007-10-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

Mrs Francis was digging around the boxes of turbine and water pump today and can't work out how to join the two up. She phoned Ben at the 'Greenshop' fpr some advice...it's in the post...but with the strike on who knows when it will arrive :O

Any ideas??

Flipping heck !

2007-09-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

The next stage is for Geoff to flip over our mosaic hands and stick them to the wet cement of the domes. He worked in the corner of the classroom whilst we tried hard to concentrate on our lessons !

Mr Farrell is teaching a Maths lesson here...the children are doing a good job pretending to be concentrating on what he is teaching them !

Writing hour

2007-09-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

In our writing hour today we had to make annotated drawings of our turbine in position linked up to the pump. It was quite tricky to get it right. Here is this week's 'Star Writer'.

Special delivery

2007-09-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today the turbine arrived. We all went into the school hall to open the very heavy box. It was very exciting... the oldest and youngest children helped Ms Francis cut the straps holding the lid on. Mrs Nicol took photos using her mobile phone.

A smashing time was had by all !

2007-09-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

We all began making our mosaic hands in class today. We each drew around our hands and then filled in the outline with one of four choices of smashed up tiles. We stuck the pieces down with sticky flour and water paste...yeuchhhh. Even our teachers had to do their hands.

Artist in Residence!

2007-09-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ms Francis found a local artist and sculptor called Geoff, he came to school to have a chat about our design ideas. We wanted our water feature to reflect the global links we have with schools and childeren around the world. Here are some of them.

FANTASTIC NEWS

2007-09-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

In June we got the news that Highlands and Islands Enterprise Moray Community Energy Company were going to help fund our project. Along with a generous donation from AMEC and money from our own school fund we had the green light to go ahead and order the 'stuff' we needed.

A Meeting with Mr Henderson

2007-09-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

10th May We had a meeting with Mr Henderson of Highlands and Islands Enterprise Moray in our school library. It was really exciting because although we had a lot of work to do it appeared that our project was actually going to happen......one day soon we hoped.

Advice from the West

2007-09-21T03:44:00.000-07:00

Ms Francis spoke to a man called Mr West and he told her which turbines would be best. We had a class discussion about what we were going to use the turbine for. We decided to use it for a pump for a fountain. We had to find a 12V pump for it to work.

Planning Disappointment

2007-09-21T03:35:00.000-07:00

19th March. . . It would have been cool to have a big turbine BUT they (Planning Department) wouldn't let us. So we decided to have a smaller one instead.

A Windy Start

2007-09-21T03:25:00.000-07:00

Our project began on the 22th of February 2007. We decided we wanted a turbine to make electricity for our school. Mrs Johnston came to school to tell us about renewable energy. We then wrote letters to lots of people to ask for advice and money.

Blowing in the Wind!

2007-09-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the story of St Thomas pupils and their efforts to improve their school environment at a minium cost to The Earth. Enjoy :)