Teacher Bill Brooks with students Lane Brunner and Joseph Heintzelman at the school's solar panels.
Students in Bill Brooks' engineering courses at James Buchanan High School can step outside their classroom and stand beside technology they learn about in class.Within the past nine months, the Tuscarora School District has added a solar hot water heating system and a wind turbine on campus.
The tools can provide a modest energy savings to the district. Teachers say value of the technology in students' hands can't be measured.
"It was a field trip that didn't require any expense, other than just walking down the yard, looking at the solar panels, looking at how it functions and how it's all put together," Brooks said. "These guys now have real-world hands-on applications."
The two additions are the latest changes to beef up a blossoming Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) program in the district.
Middle school science teacher Kristie Guldin said she's already timed the walk from the middle school to the solar panels and wind turbine to create trips for students. Penn State students visit JB eighth-graders every year for an engineering lesson.
"To me, engineering and STEM is problem solving," Guldin said. "You learn how to use that process of what's the problem, how can I fix it, developing the prototypes, troubleshooting and redesigning. They come out of this program knowing the language and the tools along with the people who come in from Penn State.
"Eighth-graders realize engineering isn't just nuts and bolts. It's chemical engineering,
it's nuclear engineering, it's food engineering. If you're not so strong in physics, but you absolutely love chemistry, there is an engineering program for you that will tie into what your interests are and what your forte is."The Project Lead the Way curriculum at the high school - a STEM-centered education - was instituted four years ago. It includes five courses - Introduction to Engineering, Digital Engineering, Principles of Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and a capstone course.
"I like the hands-on activities," sophomore Joseph Heitzelman said. "Usually in classrooms, you have a lot of book work and paperwork. In engineering, you get on the computer or come out to the shop and create something."
It's preferred that students have at least Algebra I as a background before taking the leap, and Brooks said students can start the curriculum at any point of their high school career, beginning with the Introduction course.
"We're not trying to exclude anybody," he said. "I think there's a real benefit to having everything in one curriculum. Math is math - students may think they'll never use it. If they come into the engineering program, they see how it really is connected to real life (and) it may give them motivation to do better."
Senior Blake Mowen has spent four years in the program. Mowen's experience in the program earned him an internship on the engineering floor at D.L. Martin.
"It helps a lot," Mowen said. "Back when I had that class and we talked about solar panels and the turbine, it was only pictures on a board. We talked about it and took notes about it. Now you can actually go out, look at it, and see how they work. It's incredible to watch."
The turbine came from Penn State University's Wind for Schools program. Funding from Penn State ($12,000), West Penn Power ($6,000) and the Tuscarora Education Foundation ($2,000) helped make the turbine a reality.
Guldin and three other middle school science teachers attended a workshop at Penn State to get ideas on how the turbine could be used in the classroom.
The teachers also came back to Mercersburg with supplies.
"We got some great stuff," said Guldin said. "We got several models of wind turbines that kids can see in the classroom. They can experiment with design, number of blades, pitch of the blades. We got the materials to make generators. As they build their wind turbines, we can use multimeters to figure out how much electricity they're generating based off a number of variables."
The use of the wind turbine can provide a measurable, if modest, energy boost to the school district. Students will be able to track the energy-generating source. In addition to having the turbine on campus, students can also follow the data.
Similarly, they can track data that has been produced with the new solar panels. The panels are used to heat cold water up to about 120 degrees. Then, the traditional hot water heaters only need to heat the water an additional 60 degrees before use the kitchen. An ally throughout the process has been Facilities Manager Stanley Morgan.
Students also enjoy working with a 3D printer acquired two years ago.
"It's been a wonderful experience," sophomore Lane Brunner said. "I found new ways I can build things and make them more efficient. It's a fun an enlightening experience.
"I love being able to make something, print it out on the 3D printer and actually see it work."
The new technology has placed James Buchanan in a unique position - no other school in the county has a wind turbine on its campus. While other schools have solar hot water heaters, they're located on roofs, preventing students from getting a close-up view of how those systems work.
Students like Brunner and Heitzelman didn't expect to have this type of technology at their fingertips before they graduated.
"I figured this is a small school, small area, where in the world are we going to get this stuff?," Brunner said. "Then, you show up for the next school year and boom, they're here."
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Brian Hall can be reached at 262-4811 and bkhall@publicopinionnews.com, or follow him on Twitter @bkhallpo.
Ahead of the curve
Bill Brooks' engineering students at James Buchanan High School in the Project Lead the Way program have a large amount of technology at their fingertips:
All James Buchanan High School students carry Apple Macbooks to and from school;
A 3D printer allows students to plan projects, design them on CAD software and then print them on a 3D printer;
Students can study data from new solar hot water heaters on campus;
And a new wind turbine on campus allows students to study the technology and ultimately track results.
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