News

TKS Grade 4s see Energy research and management in action

The TKS Grade 4 students – as part of their unit of inquiry “Sharing the Planet”, were exploring the questions:

  • Where does KAUST’s energy come from (inputs/outputs)?
  • How do we measure our energy consumption in the KAUST community?
  • How is KAUST and Saudi Arabia developing greener sources of energy?

In addition to their classroom activities, the students had a great opportunity to take two field trips to the KAUST University.

To help them to answer their questions about the KAUST community’s own energy usage, the students visited the IKAS (Integrated KAUST Automation System) Control Room, where they learned how KAUST harvests energy (using solar panels), and how that energy is converted, used and re-used.  IKAS also monitors and optimizes energy usage across the KAUST campus and community.

To learn more about one research project at KAUST looking at alternative energies, and mitigating some of the negative effects of fossil fuels, they visited CERP (Clean Energy Research Platform).

These trips really brought to life what the Grade 4s were exploring in the classroom, and allowed them to see some real-world examples of energy research and usage.  The students were very excited by what they saw, and returned to school with some answers… but lots more questions…

Photos of their trips can be found here.

We would like to thank our colleagues in the IKAS and CERP for providing these valuable opportunities for our young school students to engage with research and operations.