Pedal Power Cinema

The 2022 Pedal Powered Cinema took place on the 4th of March. This event was our 11 annual event and with the extra hurdles and uncertainties of COVID-19, changing dates and clashes with rowing, outdoor ed camps and swimming sports, last-minute cancellations from covid-isolating suppliers, baristas, extra school pedallers and info stall holders, and we thought it was remarkable that the event even took place!!!

Our marvelous student, staff and parent volunteers took it all in their stride and many stepped up to fill multiple shits on things like the DUNKATRONTM tipper bucket, bookstall, wash against waste and pedal smoothie supervision. Our pack team worked right up until midnight to ensure the school was spick and span ready for the community groups that use the site on Saturday Morning.

Despite the humidity and the rain, our powerful year 8 pedallers (supported by a short lunchtime cameo staff vs year 12 pedal relay) generated 299 Watt hours throughout the day. The most powerful pedaller of 2022 is Lucy Dallimore of 8G with 7.0 Watt  hours generated in her 5 minute shift and our “longest pedaller” award goes to Gemma Perry of 8I, who generated 17.5watt hours across several pedalling shifts. Lucy will be receiving a pack of eco-friendly Lush goodies and Gemma was awarded her prize from the convenor of the Inner Melbourne Australian Conservation Foundation branch who sponsored this prize.

Our movie required 386.5 Watt hours to run and the pre-movie entertainment drew 700 watt hours from the fabulous solar powered DIYIHIFI sound system. Interestingly, our winner of the “guess the energy in the tube” of batteries competition (sponsored by Exciton Science) guessed 150 Watt hours, which was pretty close to the exact value (148.44Wh)! Given that one watt hour equals 3.6kJ, the battery tube totaled 534 kilojoules, a mere fraction of the amount of chemical energy in the same sized tube full of Skittles (8,636kJ*)! With the price of oil only on the way up, perhaps we need to be providing skittle power to all our staff and students who cycle to school?!

The Yarra Energy Foundation (YEF) was one of the many fantastic community information stalls at the and Chief Operating Officer Timothy Shue announced at the event the exciting opportunity for a community battery to be installed at or close to MGC that would take advantage of our renewable energy generation capacity on site. YEF would like to collect more information from the community about community batteries, so please consider completing the following short survey so that YEF may better understand community perspectives around community energy.

We would like to sincerely thank all the individuals and organisations who participated in the sustainability info stall and delivered inspiring speeches, despite the rain setting in before we relocated to the shelter of the school Gym!

Thanks to all our sponsors and supporters:

The Friends of the Earth, Yarra Energy Foundation, School Strike for Climate, City of Yarra Mayor Cr Sophie Wade, Climarte, the MGC Phianthropy Team, STEAM team, Sport Team and Diversity Team, Exciton Science, Bunnings Hawthorn, The Lost Lands Music Festival, Fly by Night Bat Rescue, the Climate Council, Yarra Climate Action Now, Xavier College, The Paella Pan, Merri Creek Management Committee and Tilt Renewables.

Moana was a wonderful family friendly film that emphasized the fun atmosphere of the pedal carnival. A huge thankyou to all our student performers, coordinated by year 11 MGC Arts Vice-Captain Bea James who kept us entertained while our guests topped up the batteries with their own pedal power to ensure we had enough renewable energy to run all 142 minutes of Moana. Year 12 Environment Captain Zoe Elliot led the fabulous MGC Environment team and was well supported by her team of captains, Sophie Hart, Gabrielle Simcox and Elsie Falkiner. 

There are far too many staff to thank in this place, but special mention must go to the fabulous MGC sustainability / pedal powered teacher team of Lisa Cardamone, Catie Cameron-Martin, Angus Smith and Catherine Walkear, as well as the unflappable performing arts team of Anne Corry and Trev Howlett for going above and beyond to bring you this successful event. Our wonderful sponsors are also acknowledged later in this newsletter.

Finally, thankyou to the audience members who attended, contributed their own pedal power, sat through performances and speeches while the rain started, relocated to the gym and supported our school to become a more sustainable organization!

*Approximate values only based on various assumptions: Please note that comparing the amount of energy transformed by a human body on a full belly of Skittles compared to a toy car with a full compartment of AA batteries is difficult to compare based on huge differences in the efficiency of energy transformations.