Stimulating a dialogue on renewable energy through making

We are exploring attitudes to renewable energy supply with the remote island community of Tiree. As part of this engagement, we are working with local children to introduce the topic of the energy generation potential of renewables (i.e. from wind and solar power). In this paper, we report on our early attempts to broker this engagement using a physical, co-constructed artefact (the PREP energy detector). Through making and co-construction, our goal was to encourage an ownership in the artefact, and thus foster enthusiasm for exploring energy potential. Observations from a recent workshop based on PREP suggest a high level of engagement and enthusiasm was engendered, which we believe was facilitated through co-construction of the artefact.