Following on from our recent Y6 science study of electricity production and renewable and non-renewable energy, and as part of our Careers Week focus, Mrs Maio spoke to each Y6 class about her work with the energy transition process. She talked about the industry’s aim to eliminate our use of fossil fuels and be ‘carbon zero’ by 2050. Mrs Maio also talked about how nuclear power is used to generate electricity and the use of renewable energies including wind and solar power. We heard some fascinating facts, such as the rotors on wind turbines have a span of 22 double-decker buses! There are many potential careers in this industry, including: computer programmers, physicists, engineers and designers. One of the difficult problems scientists are currently trying to solve is how to best store the electricity we create. We also learnt the meaning of ‘gravity batteries’ and ‘carbon capture’.
The children in Year 6 asked many interesting and challenging questions including: where nuclear fuels come from and how we can use them safely, where we might build wind farms, what can be done about greenhouse gas emissions, the financial cost of being carbon zero and if the target of being carbon zero by 2050 is realistic.
This session brought the children’s classroom learning into a real life context and demonstrated that their learning is relevant, important and leading towards a potential career path for them.
Mrs Simmons
