At the National STEM Centre in York, SMart Wind and HETA (Humberside Engineering Training Association) launched the next evolution of their awardwinning SMart Futures community schools engagement programme to name the separate wind farms within the Hornsea Zone.
Building on two successful years of collaboration, “SMart Futures Supergrid” will not only include technical classroom workshops in which Year 9 students refine wind turbine designs to maximise power generation, but will also see the teams feed their output into a virtual European Offshore Supergrid, competing to provide the most wind energy over time.
In line with previous years, the finalists from the technical classroom workshops will go through to the creative naming part of the competition, scheduled for Spring 2013, where up to five schools will offer forward potential names for the two separate wind farms which form Project 3 of the Hornsea Zone.
Since its launch in October 2010, SMart Futures has engaged nearly 7,000 pupils & teachers with awareness-raising presentations and over 2,500 students and teachers into practical, hands-on technical workshops related to wind energy. Beyond the original remit, SMart Futures has also been delivered into a Special Needs School near Hull, at the World Skills 2011 Event at the London Excel Conference Centre and has been pioneered as an exemplar STEM activity for Science teachers at York University undergoing initial teacher training.
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Press release, October 01, 2012; Image: smartwind