Hi there,
I was so inspired by Helston Community College and their project to power one of our low energy ecoquiet PCs with a wind turbine, that I decided to give 100 kits (PC + wind turbine + booklet of tips & lesson ideas) away to secondary schools across the country. I hope schools will use them to teach students about renewable energy, as the world they grow up in will be more reliant on it than today.
The competition runs until the end of March 2007, and I hope the prizes will be delivered in April. Of course, being a business, RM is using this competition to promote awareness of it's PCs, but the competition is free to enter and there is no obligation to buy anything.
I hope this forum can be a useful source of information, and becomes a place where the 100 schools can share ideas of how to use the kits in the curriculum.
I'm more than willing to answer any questions, or indeed listen to any advice people may have.
Ian Halpin
Marketing Manager RM
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See the press release below:
Wind Turbines and Energy Saving PCs up for grabs to 100 Lucky Schools courtesy of RM
- Competition Announced to Win 100 Wind Turbine and Ecoquiet PC Project Kits -
RM, the leading supplier of ICT to UK education, has announced a competition for 100 secondary schools and colleges across the UK to win project kits consisting of an energy saving ‘ecoquiet’ PC and a wind turbine large enough to power it. The kits will also come with a package of ideas for projects that can be implemented across the curriculum in order to teach the importance of energy saving to today’s young people.
The competition was inspired by Helston Community College in Cornwall, where last year a group of pupils began proactively looking for ways to reduce energy consumption and promote renewable energy within the school. As a result the college was awarded £3,000 from the Royal Society to build a research wind turbine. The turbine powered an ecoquiet PC donated by RM, as well as other lab equipment, and was used for various school projects. The results were diarised online at
www.surfingthewindyweb.co.ukRoger McMinn, Head of Science at Helston Community College, said:
“RM is to be commended for encouraging schools to teach pupils about renewable energy sources and energy saving. At Helston Community College the students were really engaged in the wind turbine project and ran it for themselves. I am sure that the winning schools in this competition will find the initiative equally motivating for their pupils.”
The RM ecoquiet PC uses 2/3 less energy than a standard desktop PC meaning that if all UK schools used RM ecoquiet technology one of the UK’s coal fired power stations could be shut down forever. Over a three year period, running thirty ecoquiet PCs in a school could save up to £1,200 in fuel costs and as much as 14,230kWh in energy.
Tim Pearson, CEO at RM, said:
“Schools produce 5 million tonnes of CO2 every year and school utility costs have more than doubled in the past four years. Schools and colleges are now taking responsibility for their impact on the environment and ensuring that energy saving strategies form an integral part of their programmes. With the roll out of these project kits across the UK it is hoped that energy saving will become a fun and interactive part of the curriculum for both teachers and pupils alike.”
Ideas included in the prize pack for cross-curricular projects will cover many subjects; ICT (powering the ecoquiet PC and publishing live weather data and energy generation on the school website); Physics (electricity generation and energy loss in long power cables); Geography (wind / weather observations); Chemistry (battery acid analysis for storing the renewable energy); Design & Technology (materials used for wind turbine).
Schools can enter the competition at
www.rm.com/windpc by describing in 300 words or less how they would use the prize. The Deadline for entries is 30th March.
