Case Study: CREATE days at Inverbain Hydro Scheme

In 2008, RWE npower renewables officially celebrated the opening of its Inverbain Hydro Project near Shieldaig in Wester Ross. As part of the celebrations, local school children were given an insight into the workings of sustainable energy with a series of fun interactive workshops.

RWE npower renewables, in partnership with the independent charity CREATE (Centre for Research, Education and Training in Energy), invited pupils from Shieldaig, Torridon, Kinlochewe and Applecross Primary Schools, to take part in a programme of fun interactive events aimed at educating young people about climate change, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Sandy Carter of CREATE said: "The programme gets pupils to think about climate change and how it is affecting others worldwide, as well as investigating the power of the wind, water and sun as renewable energy sources. Hopefully the teachers have found that the three themes of climate change, energy efficiency and renewable energy have helped them meet some of the National Curriculum criteria in subjects such as Science, Geography and Citizenship. We have also been able to suggest to the teachers ideas of activities to take back to the classroom. The feedback we get from the schools is always very positive."

The students, aged 6-11 years, learned about how other children across the world are affected by the onset of climate change, from sea levels rising in the Maldives to ice melting in Greenland, and actions we can all do to slow down its impact.

The children were also given the opportunity to visit the Inverbain hydro scheme, to help them understand first hand how it generates electricity.