I searched all over Utah for a place to take the kids on a field trip for electricity week (that was related to this subject) and wasn't very successful. I called Rocky Mountain Power company and they said all facility tours had been shut down for safety issues, especially for hydro plants. And I couldn't see myself driving to the Hoover Damn just for a damn field trip, although it would have been cool (just had to use a damn joke there, sorry)! The Museum at Thanksgiving point was an excellent backup plan, however!
BUT! In my google searches, I did find an article about a privately owned hydro-electric station located up little cottonwood canyon, which led me to a Facebook page that had contact information for this guy who owned a power station... and so emailed the guy, Jim, to see what the possibility would be that our family could get a tour of his power plant. I didn't hear anything back for a couple of days and thought the idea went flat, but lo and behold, a few days later he returned my email and said yes! So we took the kids up on Sunday after church to see how he was turning water from little cottonwood creek into electricity!
He said he gets enough energy to support about 300 homes from a 24 inch pipe that drops 300 feet down the canyon. He showed the kids the turbine and tried to explain how it all works, but I think they were lost at "kilowatt." The kids thought it was cool that the energy from moving water could be transformed into electricity to power lights, phones, computers and TVs. Jim challenged Jackson to make a mini hydroelectric source from our kitchen sink.... he was thrilled to see our kids' interest in learning. We appreciated his time to share what he does with us. Well, maybe all of us except Zoey who thought it was completely boring.
I'm pretty sure that what they all found the most interesting was just exploring a new canyon. It was very beautiful. The river was running high and fast and was mesmerizing to watch... and Brian and I were really nervous to have our kids get too close, it was kind of frightening! But we did take them down a short hike. A few flowers were picked, rocks collected, sticks thrown, and knees scraped. It was a fun family day.
No comments:
Post a Comment