REcharge Academy2017 EVENT REPORT

SPONSORS

Specia l thanks to Powerhouse at Colorado State Univers ity for the venue

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Overview

The 2017 REcharge Academy, hosted at the Powerhouse Energy Campus at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, brought together 26 teachers from all over the US and Canada to learn about renewable energy. This year, we chose to have an emphasis on wind and solar power generation and how those energy sources connect to the grid. Educators from K-12 classrooms learned about wind and solar powered devices, built basic circuits and developed early engineering skills to bring to their students. One of the major highlights of the week was the tours of wind and solar facilities and turbine blade manufacturing plants.

The REcharge Academy is designed to let teachers learn by doing. As one teacher explains, “experiencing the learning for myself and participating in the activities I can implement with my students was extremely helpful!”. Educators who participate in the activities have a much better understanding of how their students will fare when faced with the same activity. Doing so allows them to make adjustments in the lesson to account for their students’ needs.

Daily Breakdown

The days were broken up by concept: Energy & Impact, Wind Power & Renewable Energy Festival, National Renewable Energy Lab, Solar & Power Grid Systems, and Offshore Wind. This helped frame the activities in a larger context and generated targeted discussion. Each day, we introduced the daily concepts and give a brief presentation to contextualize the upcoming activities. Browse the full agenda here (goo.gl/K81GC4).

MONDAY: ENERGY & IMPACT

On the first day, we spent time getting to know each other, understanding the Flip Grid app for video interviews, and exploring wind and solar misconceptions and perceived negative impacts by using stop motion animation. The afternoon was capped off by an exciting tour of the Vestas blade manufacturing facility. Educators were encouraged to share their thoughts throughout the week through video interviews on Flip Grid. See them at www.flipgrid.com/RLAcademy17

2017 REcharge Instructors came from 13 US states and Canada

Our network of 234 REcharge Instructors have come from 36 US States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Lebanon, Trinidad, and the US Virgin Islands

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TUESDAY: WIND POWER & RENEWABLE ENERGY FESTIVAL

On the second day, we dove a little deeper into concepts about wind power and energy. We spent most of the day rotating through five wind and solar challenge stations during the Renewable Energy Festival. Those stations included MacGyver Windmills, Wind Turbine Tunnel, Sail Cars, Solar Rover, and Solar Water Pumping. Academy participants loved the format and activities of the Festival, and will be implementing the activities at their schools.

WEDNESDAY: NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB

We spent the third day at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) learning about their research and their educational resources. The day was split up into guest presentations and activities. We learned about Wind for Schools and their programs, participated in a wind turbine siting activity, and explored databases and data simulations which help model wind turbine performance and wind farm siting.

THURSDAY: SOLAR & POWER GRID SYSTEMS

On Thursday we learned about the variables of solar power through hands-on activities such as the Solar Scavenger Hunt and Solar House. We then dove into learning about the power grid system with REcharge Labs’ new Power Grid Kit as building blocks to make mini-cities. We learned about the capacity of electrical generation, demand, trends, and the complex system of the grid infrastructure. Guest speaker Daniel Zimmerle concluded the power grid activity with a presentation about smart grids and his research in the field.

FRIDAY: OFFSHORE WIND

Exploring Offshore Windpower was a perfect activity to end the week. Teachers worked together to build offshore wind platforms that could withstand Mike’s tidal waves, all done in the CSU Powerhouse fountain. After the offshore wind activity, we opened up the “store,” and offered up all the activities throughout the week in kit Teachers put their offshore wind turbine designs to

the test in rough waters.

Teachers make a MacGyver Windmill out of simple classroom materials.

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form, so the teachers could take what they learned back with them immediately. Teachers were given a materials stipend to spend at the store, or to use for ordering additional supplies.

Main Take-Aways

The strongest theme across the evaluations was the appreciation for the hands-on nature of the REcharge Academy and the connections to real-world applications. Many teachers commented that, while they understood a the basics of renewable energy prior to the Academy, the activities, tours, and lectures from experts gave them confidence to bring more in-depth concepts to their classrooms. We were excited to have the opportunity to take our attendees on so many tours thanks to CSU's state of the art facilities. The hands-on and real-world components of the REcharge Academy is a pillar of our professional development that makes it stand out and earn high rankings among teachers.

In addition, the evaluations indicated that teachers loved REcharge Labs' activities and were excited to use them in their own classrooms. Many teachers felt more confident teaching about renewable energy when taught through our dynamic kits and activities instead of through lectures alone.

Finally, teachers suggested including more electricity basics in future Academies. In past years, REcharge Labs has dedicated a full day to training about electricity basics, but we struggle with balancing that against using that time for tours, hands-on lessons, and group activities. However, given the resounding feedback this year, especially from teachers of younger grades, we are prepared to incorporate more basics into future trainings through pre-readings, homework, or as a dedicated portion of the week.

Teachers get hands-on to learn how the power grid works by making their own Mini Grid.

REcharge Academy participants went on tours of energy facilities, including the NREL wind farm tour.

Attendees get to see how wind turbine blades are made.

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Concluding Thoughts

Appended to this report is a summary of the Academy evaluations. The teachers did a great job contending with long days, new and challenging content, and endless activities.

We’re confident our newest REcharge Instructors will join our distinguished crew of master educators as they will use these new materials in their classrooms and camps, and help other teachers understand how to integrate renewable energy into their classrooms.

It is clear from the feedback that having a heterogeneous group of teacher levels and subjects makes it challenging to target content to a specific level or subject. We try our best to make the materials we share adaptable to many levels and to present complex information so that novices to experts are engaged. Sometimes that balance can be very challenging, but we are always excited to continue to improve this event for future years.

Participants in the Solar Rover race built their own solar powered devices and raced them to see whose went farthest.

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Appendix: Summary of Evaluation Data

We noticed a marked improvement of knowledge and understanding. Teachers rated their knowledge of the following criteria before the training and after the training on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Teachers marked the highest improvement in using REcharge kits and curricula, indicating that one of the most important goals of the Academy, that teachers feel confident enough to use our materials in their own classrooms, was met.

Knowledge on the following issues

Average improvement between before and after the REcharge Academy

Points change (on a scale of 1-5)

Percentage improvement

General energy concepts + 1.00 20%Electrical concepts (voltage, current, etc) + 1.00 20%Siting issues wind & solar + 1.50 30%How wind turbines work + 1.48 29%How solar panels work + 1.41 28%Teaching about wind and solar + 1.55 31%Using REcharge/KidWind kits + 1.98 39%Using REcharge/KidWind curricula + 2.00 40%

We asked in-depth questions to gauge comprehension and the biggest take-aways of the week. Below is a chart of most of the questions we asked (excluding questions about logistics and planning, which we use improve future years) and a selection of responses that indicate noteworthy trends amongst the group.

Selected Questions Noteworthy trends and commentsDid the training enhance your understanding of wind and solar energy?

• 100% responded "yes"

Do you feel that the training prepared you to work with your students around wind and solar power? Why or why not?

• 100% responded "yes"• Participants felt like they gained background

knowledge and valued the experience of learning by doing

Do you feel that after the training you would feel confident training or presenting to other educators?

• 36% responded "yes"• 23% responded "somewhat" or "yes for some

aspects, no for others"• 41% responded "no"

What could have been done differently to make you feel more prepared?

• "Partnering up with someone who knew the stuff better than me so I could learn with and from them."

• "More on general energy info - even basics like what a volt/watt is, or have recommended pre-reading (like a couple pages) on it."

How long should future REcharge Academy trainings be?

• 95% responded "same number of days"• 5% responded "more days"

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Selected Questions (continued) Noteworthy trends and comments (continued)

How did you feel about the amount of time we spent training each day?

• 14% responded "day could have been shorter"• 81% responded "length of day was good"• 5% responded "day could have been longer"

Would you want to do more training in the evenings?

• 27% responded "yes"• 73% responded "no"

How do you feel about the way the training ran overall? Any comments?

• 100% responded that it went well• Participants felt like it was a lot of information,

some need time to process, and many suggested incorporating more breaks.

Were there any additional subjects or topics you feel should have been covered? Please list here?

• "More experience with Vernier probeware"• "I would have liked to have had a real basic

fundamentals of electricity class."• "I'd like to hear about research in alternative

energies (biofuel, hydrogen, cutting edge)"Would you recommend the training to another teacher? If so what would you tell them?

• 100% responded "yes"

*Evaluations were completed by 22 of the 26 attendees. Percentages based off of 22 respondents.