Acadia Tidal Energy Institute School Outreach Program Overview

Description

Currently ATEI is seeking to develop a Tidal Energy School Outreach Program for grades 7 to 12 and have recently completed phase one: development of tidal turbine demonstration kit and presentation and administration of the activity to several groups. Phase two of the project will include extensive presentations to schools in Nova Scotia, particularly rural schools, and phase three will consist of larger scale production of the turbine kit and test tanks to reach a wider audience, nationally and potentially internationally.

Tidal Turbine Demonstration Kit

The demonstration kit is part of a presentation and hands on activity to help educate middle and high school students about harnessing the power of tidal energy. Funding was received from the TD Friends of the Environment Fund to purchase the materials to create the demonstration kit and the Engineering Design class at Acadia University was engaged to have an undergraduate group create the kit and test tank as a project for their class.

The 4-person team designed and built a two tank system that allows gravity to force water through a pipe between the two tanks with a 3D printed turbine blade inserted into the flow and connected to a generator to measure voltage produced. A voltage probe is connected to the generator and interfaced (LabPro) with a computer software program (Logger Pro) where the voltage can be plotted in real time and used to calculate power and energy.

Figure 1: Screenshot from completed tidal turbine demonstration activity showing performance of the ten blades in LoggerPro

In the lower tank there is a pump to return the water back to the upper tank for another demonstration. The turbine blades are interchangeable and created using a 3D printer allowing for easily reproduction. Currently when performing the demonstration, students are given a brief presentation on how energy is extracted from the tides then grouped into small (2-4 people) teams. The teams are given a sheet describing the different available blades and asked to think of a team name, the characteristics of the blades and which blade may produce the most power (highest peak) and most energy (power over time). The team names and choices are recorded and members from each team are invited to the front of the class to test the blade. Power generation is seen in real time and energy is calculated with the LoggerPro software after all blades have been tested.

Figure 2: left: Diagram of turbine demonstration kit, centre: 3D printed turbine blades for use with the kit, right: turbine            demonstration kit connected to logger pro to display voltage in real time.

Accompanying Presentations

An Acadia Biology student created two lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations as part of her special projects class, one for high school students focused on ATEI Environmental Research, and one for Middle school students focused on barrage vs in-stream tidal energy technology. The Tidal Turbine demonstration activity was used in conjunction with the presentations and presented to two high school classes and four Grade 8 Science classes in March and April 2015. The activity was also performed with visiting members from the Gulf of Maine Institute on July 1st, 2015. Recommendations were solicited from the participants and teachers with overall feedback being very positive.