Words and Photos - Leonardo D. Alternative Energy & Design cohort
Our plan for the day was to start out with a visit to the Sooke Solar Plant run by the T’Sou-ke Nation. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we couldn't proceed with making the trip. Our cohort leaders, thinking quickly on their as feet as they only had a day to adapt to the change in plans. So they decided they would let the students destroy, rebuild and create "stuff". As we arrived into the science room where we would be spending our day we were greeted with heavy motor and huge batteries. Before we could get to destroying and learning Mr Donatelli provided all the information for the rest of our expeditions as well as the new plan for the day. At this time he informed us that we will have a fully working transportation device run on renewable energy by the end of the year! Not one for all…everyone will get to make their own and bring it home. Naturally, we were all thrilled by the news and started discussing ideas of what vehicles we could create, with an electric scooter being on top and an electric skateboard close after. Though most of the ideas seemed ingenious Mr Donatelli and Mr Ingimundson quickly pointed out the factors we weren't considering. This included things such as price, time, and safety. Nonetheless, we were excited. Then we proceeded to absolutely destroy and pick apart an old electric scooter and a vacuum motor. This continued well into the morning with people switching over to get a diverse experience of the destruction.
After our hectic lunch, we loosened up with a calming lesson on the field about solar panels and battery storage. Among other things we learned about how ineffective solar panels are on a short scale. After that, we went to the science lab to tackle our last and hardest task, to use a brush motor, propeller, and popsicles to move a styrofoam cup. We worked on it for around two hours and by the end of the class, only half of us got our cup to move. Unfortunately, the class came to an end and we went home after an extremely interesting and productive day. We are looking forward to building on our work done today during our next expedition.