Year 8 students at the Academy having been working hard on their projects for the Dott07 competition. Click to read an update of their progress.

Dott07 stands for Designs of Our Time 2007, a competition in which Year 8 students have to design solutions to reduce the effect their school has on the environment. This could be achieved by reducing the carbon emissions of the school, lowering the amount of water used or setting up recycling systems.

The three projects that Macmillan undertook include Flower Power wind turbines, through which we hope to generate some of our own energy by harnessing the power of the wind, Kitchen Composting, where we aim to recycle all of our kitchen waste and the last project is to recycle all of our plastic and create a recycled greenhouse! All three of the Macmillan projects have reached the finals and On Tuesday 22 May three designers visited the Academy to spend the day working with the Year 8 Dott07 finalists.

Roy Shearer, from zero-waste design in Glasgow worked with students about their idea of using wind turbines to generate electricity. The students not only considered the wind turbine design but also tested wind speed and discussed where a whole bank of wind turbines would be best placed.

Nicky Watson and her colleague Stuart Franklin from Jane Darbyshire & David Kendall Architects worked with another keen group of students who had planned to reduce the Academies Ecological foot print by recycling the plastic bottles. It was an extremely busy and exciting day. The competition closes on July 2nd, when the finalists need to submit their final designs. Watch this space!