Thanks to a $10,000 Bright Idea Grant from PG&E, the Physics of Alternative Energy class will shed new light on the challenges and opportunities of environmental conservation.
The class debuted this year as an all-grade replacement for the previous, freshman-only physical science course.
“It’s open to grades nine to 12, but this year it’s freshmen taking it because we only got it approved a week before school started,” Chamberlain said.
Science teacher Marna Chamberlain, who will be teaching the class again next year, will be using the grant to buy materials and supplies for the projects while keeping group sizes small.
“It covers the cost of duct tape, all the stuff at Home Depot — I’m always at Home Depot,” Chamberlain said. “The grant just lets me buy what we need without feeling like I’m taking from the science department.”
With the help of the grant, Chamberlain will be able to fund projects for this year’s class, while also smoothing over future years’ expenses.
“Any science class that has labs will have consumables,” Chamberlain said. “Chemistry has chemicals. For this class, I’ll be buying duct tape.”
Concurrently with the class’ photo voltaic unit, Chamberlain’s TAs are converting one of the custodians’ golf carts to charge its six batteries with solar panels. The cart will serve as a model for the students to compare their solutions.
Students work on four competition-style projects through the year.
“First is the solar water heater,” Chamberlain said. “They change the hoses, change the length, the color of their trays; the competition is who gets the hottest water in twenty minutes.”
The class recently completed the water turbine unit, which combined eight different labs in a final project, Chamberlain said.
“It’s who can create the most voltage. They can manipulate a whole bunch of different parts and they can bring in their own,” she said.
The last two projects also revolve around circuit design.
“Right now we’re entering into solar panels, testing a whole bunch of different configurations to see how much voltage they could get,” Chamberlain said. “The last project is the windmills, which is voltage but also mechanical energy and work, so who can get their windmill to provide the most power.”
The course is designed to align with the newly-adopted Next Generation Science Standards, integrating Common Core values such as hands-on and practical learning.
“It’s for kids who are really visual, really hands on, people who like to build,” Chamberlain said. “If it didn’t work once, it’s ok. Fix it, try it again, fix it, try it again.”
The class offers a project-based curriculum to any students who want to fulfill the UC “d” or PHS laboratory science requirements.
Fifteen to 20 seniors are signed up for next year’s course. Chamberlain hopes to see a more age-integrated class.
“The class is about deeper learning, where you would be able to experiment, question, find evidence and prove yourself over and over,” Chamberlain said. “You work yourself through a problem, which is why we’re doing project-based learning instead of the one-off lab.”
Piedmont was one of 40 schools that were given grants ranging in value from $2,500 to $10,000. The grants are from PG&E, distributed in partnership with NEED (National Energy Education Development Project).
Specifically, the grant program seeks to “educate students about renewable energy, conservation and environmental stewardship,” according to PG&E’s website.
Chamberlain was introduced to the grant by Heather Brooks, a teacher at Vintage High School in Napa Valley, who teaches a similar course at her school.
“She had enough experience to convince our whole department and the special education teachers who we brought it up with that it would be a good fit for our school,” Chamberlain said.
