Brand-new vimeo of Island Energy Inquiry!

https://vimeo.com/139833906
Thanks to talented Pomaikai Elementary teacher Donelle Sakuma for creating this same-day vimeo of our Island Energy Inquiry workshop, part of the educational offerings of the Ka Hei program state-wide.  Watch for IEI workshops coming to your islands!

Working with Maui Electric towards energy prosperity

Our Island Energy Inquiry team worked alongside Maui Electric Company at their Electric Energy Fair to help families discover the path to energy prosperity.  Can you hand-crank our turbine and convert it to a table fan?

Blog Feedback

Aloha Island Energy Inquiry (IEI) Blog Readers,

The MEDB Island Energy Inquiry team would greatly appreciate your help in obtaining feedback regarding the popularity of the IEI blog. If you would like to continue reading posts from our Island Energy Inquiry team, please email Melinda White at melinda@medb.org.  Please feel free to let us know what topics you would be interested in for future posts.

We hope to hear from you!

Mahalo!

STEM Success: For all?

Rocket Scientist Syndrome

 

I enjoyed Alfred Hall’s commentary (April/May 2015 The Science Teacher).  He’s done a nice job of showing the importance of educating STEM students—both the ‘best and brightest’ and everyone else.

 

My reasons for agreeing are more social than strictly educational.  I actually became a 17-year science teacher because of what I saw during a 19-year career as an engineering manager and executive.  I was dismayed at how ‘uncool’ it had become for American students to embrace science and engineering.  I hired many young engineers, and increasingly they’d been educated abroad and had come to America to fill our gaping need for technical professionals.  Where were our own professionals?

 

Taking college campus tours with our son, I would hear our campus tour guides pointing out the dorms, library, or campus performing arts center with pride.  Then we’d pass the engineering school (at a distance) and the guide would say, in effect, “There’s the engineering school.  We see the freshmen disappear there and show up at graduation…we have no idea what happens to them in between.”  The not-subtle message steers young people away from STEM—almost horrifying them.

 

As a science teacher then, I had a combined mission.  Rather than try to turn everyone into scientists, I instead wanted them to appreciate the possible ‘cool-ness’ of the sciences.  I got everyone in our class doing science, asking and answering their own questions, learning the way scientists learn.  But my message was straightforward.

 

Science (STEM) is not for everyone.  We want those who have the natural STEM talent and disposition to understand that a technical career can be very cool, enjoyable and rewarding.  We want another tier of mechanically-gifted people to enjoy becoming technicians, mechanics, experimenters and to know their talents are valued and rewarded by society.  And we want everyone else—the artists, actors, poets, historians, accountants—to be comfortable knowing and working with ‘nerds’ because we are not nearly so nerdy as we seem, and we’re actually doing cool things that all students can and should experience in middle and high school.

 

Lately, I’ve been concerned with the backlash that STEM is starting to get, as STEM programs succeed in attracting funding and student interest.  Schools want to add Arts to STEM, making it STEAM.  And add reading skills (STREAM) and maybe music (STREAMM?) because educators worry there’s a big pendulum in education that can only swing one way or the other.  False!  We’re not trying to grab humanities students and force them into STEM pathways.  That would be crazy.  We just need to create awareness among all our students on how to either pursue STEM careers (with the natural disposition of those few students and with society’s approval of them) or pursue totally different fields (with a clear fondness for their STEM sisters and brothers).

 

This is a paragraph I sent home to parents each year as a science teacher: 

 

                We need to be a society with members capable to figure things out and make things work—to produce.  Our courses in science and math help prepare some specialists for their further technical training, and help the rest of society understand the part played by scientists, engineers, and technicians.  Similarly, our science majors need to know that building a physical framework is only a part of society’s output.  Cars, spaceships, computers, and particle accelerators are all tools and devices that serve us while we also advance arts, culture, philosophy, religion, or even entertainment and recreation.  Students in my courses will hear my views of where their classes fit into their portfolio of understanding. 

 

 

 

                                                        Graham R. DeVey

Electric Future! Attend an Open House Near You...

The Hawaiian Electric Companies and NextEra will be meeting with your community to share ideas for the state's energy future.  You are invited!  All times are 5 to 8 PM at the locations shown here.

Hawaii's Warm Sun

These are illustrations within a new IEI module for Kindergarten, titled "Hawaii's Warm Sun" which bases the NGSS standards for grade K on energy we use from the sun in Hawaii.  In this lab activity, students explore the effects of bright sunlight on colors of construction paper.

Kaua`i Training Photos

Our teachers on Kaua`i are documenting their inquiry learning through iPad photos.  This group was learning Island Energy Inquiry as part of the Ka Hei statewide project with our partners OpTerra Energy Services.

Ka Hei Project brings IEI back to Kaua`i

This IEI workshop at Kaua`i Community College was hosted by OpTerra Energy Systems as part of the Ka Hei project now being piloted.  During part of our studies, we worked with Bob Conti, one of the state's top training resources in solar energy and a great friend of the program.  Check out the flow of water from the pump that Bob is powering with a Photovoltaic panel!

Young scientists explore wind power!

Dozens of young scientists and their families built wind-turbine pinwheels at IEI's display center on Saturday, part of Maui Electric's Energy Fair.  These students were able to use their own pinwheel designs to harness energy from the wind!

Asia experiences IEI!

Our IEI team shared methods during a pilot project in Bangkok, and our Thai students love learning.

Harnessing the sun?

What variables affect the power we can take from sunlight with PV panels in series?  In parallel?  Our teachers learn for themselves (as scientists do) during our Oahu workshop on June 26-27.

Maui Teachers Modify Their Experiments

What variable will you choose to test?  Does your new data support our  hypothesis?  Teachers modify experiments to test variables and defend their results...

Tell your teaching friends: IEI workshops this summer!

Aloha all, please let your teaching friends know that we'll be offering full, 2-day Island Energy Inquiry workshops on Maui and Oahu over the summer break.  Please have a look at the flier, and get in touch with Denissa 808.270.6805 or Graham 808.270.6804. 

Compete, thanks to KidWind!

Our alert IEI teacher Carmen noticed an international competition that KidWind is sponsoring:

http://challenge.kidwind.org/online

Your students can form a team and send in their results for a KidWind turbine they design.  Carmen's team, "Team Gold" have entered next month's competition already.  Good luck!

A first light for the globe?

Our friend Charles Wang of Hawaii ECO Project has shared with us a working prototype of Panasonic's LED Lantern.  This self-contained system will use sunlight to directly charge a high-tech battery--storing enough energy for five hours of bright light or twenty at a reduced-light setting.  Many humans on our globe have never owned a light bulb, and this would be an amazing way for them to enjoy their first light!

 

An Energy Poem from Waiupahu!

Our IEI teacher Kathy Duhaylongsod of Waipahu Elementary sent us this poem from her 5th graders.  Clever teacher!

Energy Here, Energy There

Energy here, energy there,

Energy, energy everywhere!

Wind can transfer energy just fine,

All you need is a wind turbine!

A turbine needs some wind to move,

And turn those blades, oh-so-smooth!

Like our pinwheel lifting some clips,

Turbines make electricity in a zip!

Energy here, energy there,

Energy, energy everywhere!

On Maui: What renewable energies are leading?

http://hightechmaui.com/maui-county-continues-to-lead-the-way-in-renewable-energy/  This link will take you to the latest data on important renewable energies on Maui.  Solar?  Wind?  Geo?  These and many more are clearly described and quantified by MEDB's High Tech Maui group. 

Solar oven--Can you fry an egg?

http://www.billnye.com/so-hot-you-could-fry-an-egg/

Here's a link to a Bill Nye site that gives tips on how to fry an egg using your solar oven.   You'll need to get to about 55 Celsius or 130 Fahrenheit.  It's fun!  Show your students?

Social media in seven minutes: Share with students

Here's a link showing how critical skills in social media have become.  Give it a look and share with your students; this is the world we can help them prepare to enter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mid8p4A6Eg&feature=youtu.be

Sun, and wind!

We had a sunny day to visit Kawailoa Wind Farm with our friends from First Wind, Adam Young and Carolyn Unser.  Sun, wind, great views, and amazing technology!

Our visiting teachers on Oahu will have a lot to share with their students.  Newest blade designs minimize sound and boost performance.  These are 2 . 3 megawatt (million watt) turbines!