visit to Cruachan

E³ participant, Lorraine Izzett has been engaging her pupils, school and wider community in Learning for Sustaina- bility through her work on the Professional Learning Programme. Tasked with organising an Energy Visit, pupils visited the Cruachan Power Station on the banks of near Oban. Lorraine began her E³ journey with a group visit to EDF Energy’s Torness Station where her understanding of energy generation and future security was developed. This visit would further extend her understanding of ’s energy generation. This is what Lorraine and her pupils had to say :

St Rose of Lima Primary The Journey The pupils prepared for their energy trip by investigating electricity generation in Scotland and exploring energy through the games on the Pod. In class we established a fictional riverside rural community whose whole way of life was threatened by the proposal of building a dam, This provided a context to explore the advantages and disadvantages of dams and hydroelectric power in an engaging and exciting way. The idea of planning a trip to Cruachan Power Station was totally aspirational—no one in school had been so far away on a one day trip. We left Glasgow before school started and headed for our stop off in Loch Lomond. We stopped for an hour for a run about, exploration of the shore a snack and a walk in the woods. Back on the bus we wound our way around the Loch finally arriving in Cruachan at 11:00. The Visit At the visitor centre we received a fantastic welcome from all the members of staff. In the educational exhibition we were challenged to complete a very tricky fact treasure hunt. By doing this we learned all about electricity and . If there were any questions we were stuck with then the ladies in the café were outstanding at explaining things to us and giving us some hints for our fact hunt. On the guided tour we went through the tunnel into the massive machine hall inside the mountain. The guides guides told us all about the Power Station, from its history and construction to how it works and its current role generating a huge amount of electricity at times of such as when the adverts come on TV when a big football game is on.

The Impact The pupils were totally blown away with this trip with many of them now interested in being engineers. They said they were now aware of how challenging it is to make electricity. Next time they want to walk the 6 miles to the dam and back so they can see this in real life.