Year 8 geography students from Imberhorne School visited Shepham Wind Farm to learn all about the benefits of renewable energy. This visit was coupled with a trip to Berwick Solar Farm so that the pupils could make comparisons of different renewable energy sources.
At Shepham, the pupils were split into two groups. One group was given a technical tour where they were told how the wind turbines work and how the electricity gets to their homes. There was also a lot of discussion on how the land was impacted upon, used prior to and after development of the wind farm, as well as local opinions about the site. The pupils asked questions about local employment at the site, about how much power the site makes and how many turbines would be needed to power large cities such as London, and the cost of developing the site.
The second group worked on environmental activities, led by Jo Hatton, from LEAF, such as carrying out mood surveys, noise surveys and looking again at the impact of the wind farm on the local environment. They recorded the sound levels using noise meters, recorded their mood and completed a table recording all the different local environmental factors. They looked closely at the current use of the land and what crops were growing in the fields.
The pupils really enjoyed their visit to Shepham; one pupil commented, ‘I’m just fascinated by them – they are just amazing.’ Steve Nichols, the geography teacher from Imberhorne School said, ‘The day was really interesting, it provided a lovely experience for the pupils, they left aware of the positives and negatives of wind energy,'
If you would like your school to arrange a LEAF Open Farm School Day contact Julie.Neale@leafuk.org.
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