Green energy projects

Recognizing a lack of public awareness about energy issues, this university, in collaboration with several other organizations, has launched a course dedicated to teaching students across the country about the many facets of sustainable energy.

The university piloted the new I-series course BIOE 289A: Designing a Sustainable World this semester after campus researchers conducted a survey and found most institutions lack energy education courses, said Idalis Villanueva, bioengineering lecturer and co-developer of the course.

Together with the Department of Energy, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Environment and Energy Study Institute, the university designed the class to teach students about topics such as energy law and policy, Villanueva said. The course emphasizes the Department of Energy’s seven “Essential Principles” of energy literacy — the ideal level of understanding the department wants the public to have about energy issues, Villanueva said.

“As we become a more energy-focused society, it’s important that we have understanding across the board,” Villanueva said. It’s important for students to learn not only about the various methods of energy production, but also about their socio-economic impacts such as job creation and long-term sustainability, she added.

The 28-student class, taught by education professor and course co-developer Leigh Abts, was designed with about $100,000 in grants from the Department of Energy, APLU and the National Science Foundation. The course has already spread to state colleges, Abts said. Cecil College and Harford Community Colleges will pilot their own versions next fall.

Open to students of all majors, the class fulfills general education credits and sustainability studies minor requirements. Though his class has many engineering majors, Abts said more than half of the students are enrolled in letters and sciences. One of the course’s best aspects, he said, is that students can find what interests them and pursue projects that fit their passions.

“For many of these students, they’ve never really had the opportunity to connect the knowledge that’s out there on energy and sustainability and apply it in a way that’s meaningful and solves real-world problems,” Abts said. “Students and others have come up with some very innovative solutions to solve some really critical problems.”

One student in the class is designing an idea for a floor made from a material that can turn the motion of people walking into kinetic energy. This material, Abts said, could potentially be used in an arena as large as a football stadium to harness the motions of the crowd and power the lights.

Rachel Grafman, a freshman enrolled in the course, is designing a buoy that could be placed in still bodies of water to monitor the water quality and mitigate pollution. The buoy would help maintain the pH level of the water and would send out a signal to scientists monitoring the area if extra intervention was needed, the civil and environmental science engineering major said.

The class is great for budding scientists and engineers who hope to make the world a cleaner place, Grafman said, but it also provides an opportunity for non-science students to learn more about clean energy.

“It’s a really broad topic. It’s very easy to get by knowing the absolute basics,” she said. “There’s so much that people can learn that isn’t super difficult for non-science majors.”

Students will present their projects to a panel of scientists and researchers in May, Abts said. They have been documenting their work in online portfolios throughout the semester so they can show their results to potential employers, he added.

While she’s enjoyed the class, Grafman said students should be grouped by their initial knowledge of the course topics, because her classmates’ levels of expertise were so varied.

Once course adjustments are made following the end of the semester, Abts said it will likely spread quickly to other institutions. More than 200 colleges and universities have already contacted APLU to express interest in the new curriculum, he added.

The course’s best qualities are its ability to inspire innovation and its potential to help students begin to accomplish their future goals, Abts said.

“The whole philosophy has been like the Leonardo da Vinci approach,” Abts said. “I’ve stressed that [students’] designs may not be feasible today, but could be 200 years from now. You want to give students not only the motivation to think and apply their knowledge, but give them tools to use throughout their undergraduate education and beyond to their careers.”

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