Thanks to Forward Together - Green Energy Initiative, Solar

Forward Together just put together a little PR video about the grant that allowed Juda to install Phase 2 of their solar array (all project management done by students).  The applicant has to be a teacher on the grant so I was too much of a main character, when the students should have been, but it came out great (outside of how old I look).

Link to WEA Trust Video

Again - every school, every student should experience this during their K-12 schooling -- it can be done.  It is problem solving, it is real world.  It is just selecting great projects over good curriculum.

Wisonsin needs ambitous clean energy goal in our Schools!

The opinion section of the Wisconsin State Journal dated Sunday, April 20th was "Wisconsin needs ambitious clean energy goal."  I generally agree with the theme and believe that green energy is a way for us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and is a wise investment in our future.  I also believe Wisconsin's goal should be more than just a percentage of our energy use in the state. Our goal should include our schools and students - we need to make everyone good consumers and decision makers with respect to energy. (FYI -- I don't want to enter a comment nightmare about political views, I just want to discuss simple economics of green energy and the power of students with legislature assistance.)

The school where I teach has been using Green Energy to help my students learn the skills that the world and workplace require (project management, problem solving, analysis, justification, etc).  We have avoided entering the climate change debate because people tune out, we have simply studied whether green energy makes good financial sense.  They discovered that generating our own electricity at our school with securing some small grants and donations simply made sense.  Using solar and wind versus carbon based products in the long term simply means a long term reduced cost to operate the school in our district.  Once the panels are paid for, the energy just keeps coming, it is simply a method to pre-purchase power.  It is proactive and can create powerful learning experiences for students.

The Wisconsin legislature should be pushing ways to help schools met ambitious goals for producing their own power, using students to lead the projects and find ways their schools can do the work and reduce their long term costs.  Students are an untapped resource in every district - their drive can make amazing things happen (video about using Real Problems, Real Projects and Real Solutions).

Students can get the project going - can analyze if a 15 year payback, with an ROI over 5% is a "good" project - then tell the boss (the board).   Each school in the state should have students working on this and presenting to their school boards.   We know school buildings will not disappear over the next decade - the costs to operate a school is one of the few places where reducing the cost does not effect students!

Now I (and my class) agree that some grants are needed, the cost of solar straight up puts paybacks into the 20 plus year range.  But that is where the legislature can help, channeling grants through Focus On Energy for student led projects could be a boon for our education system from the stand point of learning and reducing our school distirct's operating costs.  Currently nearly all the money spent on electricity goes out of state - and yet the sun gives enough energy every hour to power the world for an entire year - so we can easily power 10% of our school's consumption! 

My class has found people who want to make green energy about climate change, about the Middle East, about amount of government, etc -- some people want to make this a political discussion and that leads to all kinds of arguments.   We stick to the idea that it is really just good sense to reduce your long term repeating costs.  And energy, like everything else, gets more expensive with time.  Pre-buying power can be a win for the schools, the state and its taxpayers and most importantly the students!  I urge the State Journal to bring this to fore front with their editorial board and I urge our legislature to find a way to help fund schools so that all districts can generate 10% of their power.  And while education funding is complicated and hard, this type of initiative is a one time funding thing and the state is in the right place to do it now.  Action can lead to results.

Cause every kilowatt, every dollar counts -- waiting is giving away power and savings -- but more importantly students building and leading is too positive an outcome not to invest in immediately.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition -- Juda Students and Teacher write contest Lesson plan and win.

So today I received an email for Samsung telling me Juda had won the State competition for their Solve for Tomorrow contest.  I was very excited - winning is good, being the state winner is awesome, round 2 is making a video which is exciting (there are 50 state winners and 5 go to the "finals"), and $20,000 of Samsung products will be great.  And though I did do some work on the grant, it was a combined effort with my Physics class.  They brainstormed, wrote, and are the bigger part of the "win" and more importantly are the major cog in making the next step in our solar, green energy project happen.

Our project is to push hard and make Juda get 10% of its energy from green supplies (increasing another 6% beyond what the current solar array does).  And more importantly showing other schools how they can do this project.  Rolling out our documents, our lessons, and using our video to get people excited.  Students can make change.  It will help by showing how they can get green, reduce their school's operating costs and show how students, whether in a class or an organization, can take ownership in making their school, their community, their world a better place.  Our video will support this vision!

So today I am simply over-joyed, so were my students.  Tomorrow we start this year's project - with funding already there.  Ahhh.

Focus on Energy - Solar Project

Enjoyed receiving the grant money from Focus on Energy, so we (me and the Physics class) decided to video the check opening!  Yup - I am that guy.

We also have completed the Power Plant page so anyone can what is happening with the panels!  So that is it - project = DONE!

So just like the video said - we are done with the 24 panel install.  But we have already started saving for Phase 2 - 12 more panels!  So to be part contact Juda Schools and tell them you want to help!  $$

Turning on the Solar

Check it out!  We turned on the solar today!  Just over 2 years to do the project - and today we started generating about 4 kW right away on a partly sunny day!  (at about 1:00 pm)

It is a pretty sweet feeling -- a student lead project that has real world positive effects.  The only reason I get the glory is that all the students who started the project are at college!

PBL at work.

Problem Based Learning - Real problems, real solutions -

How do you get students interested in what is going on?  How do you make them understand real world things like ROI and payback?  How do you make students justify and defend?


You do real world things.  We did the green energy thing, and we will finish that project shortly.  So now it is encore time.  What other real world things can students do?

LED Lighting, Roof gardens, Water reduction, Insulation (heating/cooling) reduction -- what else?
Figuring out what is next is challenging -- leave a comment, help me out!

Green Energy - Putting Solar at Our School -- Two

So this has been an excellent week for green energy at my school. Thanks to tremendous community support we have been able to raise over 25% of the system cost (over $5000) with donations and grants.  (Synergy Renewable also donated labor to help lower our overall cost.)

This brought the payback of the system into a reasonable range for our school!  And this past week the board approved the purchase of Juda's first solar array.  This is a commitment to the school, the community, the students and is a great support of our educational initiative to have the students do real world work.  The students created a project that worked and will have be helping the district reduce costs for decades.

We are now proceeding with a 24 panel, 4.3 kW system that is warrantied for 25 years.  And the day we get it install it will lower our electric bill!  It will supply less than 5% of our needed power but it is a start (because the first step is hardest, the next step is always easier).

And due to the support we were able to buy a system that was slightly larger than our smallest plan!  We may have even more support coming yet which would allow us to buy a slightly larger inverter thus allowing for another row or  12 panels to be added in the future.

This project showed that you just have to hold on to good ideas, cause sometimes things simply take time.  The project will meet all the goals the Physics class of 2011-12 except one - which was to install the spring/summer 2012.  

Yet I call the project a complete success.

Green Energy - Putting Solar at our school

Two years ago I started a project with my Physics class to research green energy for our school.  It included all reports, vendor contacts, etc -- and I sat back and advised but did not teach it.  I let the students find their way.

Now we are closing in on it happening!  When you combine curriculum, problem solving and real world things together cool stuff happens (true PBL!)!  Here is an article we did a couple of weeks ago for the local papers:

Green Things Take Time

            Two years ago the 2011-2012 Juda Physics class embarked on the ambitious project to install a green energy system at Juda school.    It was a year-long project incorporated into the Physics class.  “Sometimes good things take time” may be the best statement about the solar panel project at Juda School. 

The project consisted of students’ research, reports, studies, project bids and studies, and timelines.   The students’ assessment determined that a 24 panel roof-mounted solar array was the best fit for the school with a price of approximately $25,000.  The students gathered bids from multiple suppliers, checked and organized permits, completed an energy audit, updated project progress to the school board and many other tasks.  But as teacher Scott Anderson stated “I am extremely proud of the project they created, but like many green projects the payback was just too high to immediately proceed without some additional funds.”

So working with the selected solar supplier, Synergy Renewable Systems located in Oregon, a grant was applied and received from Focus on Energy.  The $3,755 grant helped clear a big hurdle towards the additional funding the project needed; that grant along with a $2,000 labor credit from Synergy and some funding from student organizations, has now brought the project to the brink of being a reality.

            The previous and current Juda Physics classes are now asking local businesses and community members for support to help fulfill their vision of a green school.  They see the solar array not only as a power source but as a source of school and community pride.  “This will change how Juda’s students think about energy and power; it will also change the culture of our students with respect to energy.” says Scott Anderson

The goal is to get enough funding so the project is able to proceed this summer prior to the start of school.  To see progress of the solar project, or to help fund the project please visit www.judaschool.com.