Education Kits

Arcola Energy Schools and Education

A Branch of Arcola Energy
Arcola Energy for Schools is the educational branch of the Arcola Energy group that is dedicated to the wider understanding by young people of the science of sustainable Energy. Arcola Energy is commited through its charitable and commercial activities to the promotion of carbon neutrality in theatre, music and sporting events.
Arcola Energy Schools raises funds for its activities through government and European grants, educational workshops for schools and the sale of education kits and learning resources.
Working with our partners Horizon we have developed and are now distributing affordable and popular motivational hands on education kits for schools. Our modular kits provide teachers and young people with the means to engage safely and easily with low carbon technology in the classroom. With these kits your student will be able to undertake a wide range of simple practical investigations which fit well to the content of the National Curriculum. The new (2011) GCSE specifications include an expanded section on energy sustainability, global warming, environmental and social issues. Arcola Energy Schools is working towards the enhancement of teaching resources available to schools as part og its wider mission to develop a greener Britain.

Horizon Learning Kits
The Horizon Learning kits, listed on our store website can be stand alone or be integrated into interchangable modular components for use by a whole class or group investigations. The Renewable Energy Education set is keenly priced and provides a full range of aparatus as a starter pack.
Other packs include seperate investigations on solar panels, wind turbines, bio fuels, hydrogen fuel cells and fuel cell car kits. We also sell a versitile data recorder and software for recording and plotting data on a computer. Each acomponied with a guide sheet with supporting notes for teachers, technicians and students.
A range of innitial investigation and experiements are detailed in each pack. Once introduced to the students, the teachers will quckly see the potential to develop extention investigations.

Educational CD
Arcola Energy Schools sells an excellent supporting CD that is recomended to be used in parallel with all the Horizon kits.
The CD includes four sections:
1.) Backround theory running to 110+ well illustrated pages providing a wealth of backround readng on different forms of energy generation and much extention work for more able students up to A level standard. It also includes a teaching manual.
2.) A 100 page experiment manual from which teachers can extract pages relevant to a range of experiements linked to each investigative kit.
3.) Clear assembly guidlines for students and technical support notes for laboratory technicians.

National Curriculum: Content
The new 2011 draft specifications for all science examined at KS4 and A’ level show greater enphasis on the teaching of all issues realated to the physiscs, chemistry and biology of cliamate changes and clean energy generation. The Arcola education resources are ideally suited for students from age 12 to 19 and fit well into both traditional acedemic GCSE courses (integrated sciences, Physics, Chemistry) and pre-vocational courses (BTEC). These education kits are very practical and motivational by nature and so are particularly well suited for Applied Science and BTEC courses where hands on investigation of topical scientific issues is encouraged.

GCSE Controlled Assesment
These kits are well suited for the type of controlled assesment taks planned under the new examination regulations as they provide safe, easy to assembleand repeatable investigation with linked to clear ICT data display.

Investigative Skills and Knowledge

How Science Works
The following skills are developed through the use of these educational kits.
Practical Investigation Skills.

Designing experiments, controlling variables, taking quantative measurement, recording data
Using ICT to display data and translate into graphic format
Looking for patterns, Interpreting results and drawing conclusions.

Knowledge and Understanding
How burning fossil fuels is enhancing the atmosphere’s “greenhouse” properties.
The likely impact of global warming on sea levels and the environment
The importance of renewable energy sources in effort to avert catastophic cliamate change
How electricity and electrical circuits transfer energy

How Scientific Investigation leads to discovery and new ways of doing things
How scientists work from theory to test ideas and advance our knowledge to improve ways to generate clean energy.
How scientists work with technologies to improve design and efficiency of solar and wind powered electricity genarators.

The Use of our Kits for each stage of the 14-19 Curriculum

Renewable Energy Kit
This modular kit contains a complete miniature energy generation system that includes awind turbine, asolar panel, an electrolyzer, a hydrogen fuel cell & hydrogen storage system. Teachers can demonstrate how energy can be extracted from the sun or wind and converted into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is then used in a simple fuel cell to provide power for a motor.

Renewable Energy Monitor
The REM provides simple and effective monitoring of renewable energy devices.This device is operated so it can also be used with or without a computer – indoors or outdoors – where you can make direct solar and wind measurements in order to provide an immediate, graphical way for recording data directly. Numerous experiments and evaluation activities for hydrogen fuel cells, miniature wind turbine kits, and solar panels will now be quantifiable in real time for voltage, current, power, joules, resistance, and even RPM speed.
Other Kits available focus on the study of Wind Turbine, Solar PV, Bio-Ethanol Fuel Cell, Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Electrolysis that generate hydrogen using renewable energy and vehicle applications using clean energy technology.
These kits are perfect in the classroom for demonstration, group assessment, and individual use. Individual components are available to allow teachers to design their own assignments such as solar pv arrays and allow the kit to spread further in the classroom.

Work Shops
Arcola Energy offers a wide range of opportunities for pupils to learn in a creative environment. Whether your school is looking for workshops, performances or bespoke projects, we have a team of expert practitioners able to deliver work in your school or in our beautiful theatre. All of our practitioners are fully CRB checked. Below are a few examples of our work, but we are always happy to build a project which suits your school’s needs.

Sustainability For Schools Work Shop
A range of science and technology workshops which explore renewable energies and the possibilities that they offer for a low-carbon future.
Single workshop (90-120 mins): £200 plus materials
Full Day (3x 90 mins): £400 plus materials
Workshops: Build your own Wind Turbine (£20 materials); Recycled phone-charger mood lamps (£30 materials); Hydrogen Powered Cars (£30 materials) and Solar Powered Insects (£5 materials per participant).

Lesson Plans and Kit Support
This area of the site sources for the teacher available to download (some for a fee to cover work put in)
-Experiments
-FAQ
-Lesson Plans- to download for a small fee to cover time put into
-Forum

What teachers and students say
” The Horizon kits have really allowed me to bring the science and technology of wind turbines and solar power into the school lab. Pupils find using the kits quite strait forward and get useful data for discussion and draw conclusions.” – Jane Bowden, Leicester
“Absolutely loved Matthew’s workshop …really engaged the children and allowed them to really think and investigate.” Debbie, Teacher
“I enjoyed this workshop. It taught me the meaning of global warming in detail, making it clear for me how I could help reduce carbon emissions and how to slow down global warming.” Eden, participant
“Today was a phenomenal day. OMG. I gained more knowledge on how we as humans can reduce global warming.” Nowshin, participant