School visits start for He Ao Hou: New Future Murihiku programme
St Teresa’s School, Bluff - students fuelling their fan with hydrogen they made.On Friday 28 July, Murihiku Regeneration’s Ivan Hodgetts had the pleasure of visiting two primary schools with Dr David Warren from Chemistry Department of Otago University.
Dr Dave Warren assembling hydrogen kits with Waihopai School students.
Ivan said “it was a hugely rewarding day. Seeing the interest and amazement on the faces of students when they start running a fan from hydrogen they created in the their classroom was fantastic. Dr Warren has a real gift for engaging young people in learning.”
Ivan Hodgetts helping with hydrogen kit assembly.
He Ao Hou: New Future Murihiku is focussed on building a positive and hope-filled vision of the future and encouraging our young people to see themselves playing an active and vital role in our region. Our intent is to show young people that the technology exists to decarbonise our economy and build great opportunities for life and work in our region.
We visited St Teressa’s School in Bluff and Waihopai School, Invercargill.
Dr Warren steered the students through the assembly of the hydrogen making kits, where they used 
either a battery pack or solar power to create hydrogen. Students then timed how long the fan ran for. He also included exploration of the light spectrum, with students using coloured cellophane to explore how different colours impacted energy going from the solar panel to a fan. This allowed for a discussion of how solar panels use mostly green light - efficiency gains will come from expansion into red and blue spectrum.
Murihiku Regeneration Upoko, Terry Nicholas said “it’s great to see our team getting out to the schools and encouraging our tamariki, rangatahi and community, making visible the potential of renewable energy and opportunities that are coming in our region.”
We will be visiting a total of 22 schools in the Region over the next two months.
This programme could happen without the generous support of sponsors and partnering agencies and our Sponsors including noted below.
Special thanks go to Otago University, Dr David Warren and Professor Sally Brooker (He Honoka Hauwai) for making He Ao Hou a part of their school outreach activities.
Posted: 31 July 2023