Renewable Energy Education Workshop (2 hrs)

n      enhancing your physics courses and your recruitment efforts with renewable energy

 

Robert Ehrlich, George Mason University

 

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Purpose and intended audience:  This free workshop will help people interested in teaching about renewable energy at the college or high school levels find resources to assist them in preparing their courses.  No specific knowledge of renewable energy is assumed.

 

Workshop schedule:

30 min:

  • Why physics teachers should get involved in R.E.
  • “Renewable Energy 101”
  • Student interest in the subject  
  • Using renewable energy to enhance your physics teaching and recruitment efforts
  • Trends in renewable energy education nationally
  • Obstacles to developing renewable energy programs in colleges and universities
  • Career opportunities & future employment projections

 

30 min: Description of the rev-up project

 

60 min: The “work” part of the workshop which will feature a contest with a cash prize awarded to one workshop member subject to certain rules described below.

 

Contest rules:  The prize goes to the person who adds the largest number of new items to any of the eleven resource categories (books, media, etc) in the rev-up database during a 60 min period.  Items added to the under-populated categories of “simulations” and “course notes” count double.  In addition I will also double count evaluations submitted under the “evaluate & improve this site” link provided you make a substantive suggestion.

 

General restrictions on entered items:

  • Duplicates. Items added must not duplicate items already there, and they can be in any of eleven resource categories.  In order to check for duplicates before you enter an item, just do an alphabetic sort of all items in a given category.
  • Level.  Items added must be appropriate to high school or college level, and relevant to renewable energy.  (Climate change is slightly off-topic, for example, but energy conservation is OK, but not energy conservation in the “physics sense.”.)

 

Restrictions on entries for specific resource categories:

  • Speakers. In the speakers category only add people whom you know for a fact are willing and able to talk to school or other groups on renewable energy topics – you may include yourself if this describes you & you may add a “review” of yourself along the lines of the “review” I added for myself
  • Student Projects. For the student projects category, only add actual “how to” descriptions of projects, not reports on projects various groups have done.
  • Simulations. For the simulations category, only add simulations that are suitable to use in a class or as a project, not for example some commercial energy simulations for the actual detailed design of a building.  On the other hand, simple calculators that can be used say to calculate your roof’s solar potential are fine.
  • Internships. These must be actual opportunities open to students anywhere, not a specific institution, and they must be descriptions of the opportunity, not a news report about the work done by earlier students..