MI High School Offers Green Tech Program

By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 1/8/2009

Whitmore Lake High School in Michigan takes going green seriously. So much so that the LEED certified school is providing a year-long program called “Green Tech,” which lets students explore alternative energy sources and their importance to economic stability, as well as the sustainability of the earth's natural resources.

Whitmore Lake High School's tech-based learning lab.

The first semester of the program, Green Tech I, offers an overview of alternative and renewable energy sources including solar, wind, hydrogen, and geothermal. In Green Tech II, students have the opportunity to explore these areas in more depth, conducting independent research and creating demonstration projects of their own design.

Both courses are taught in a specially designed technology-based learning lab, where students engage in extensive hands-on experimentation building solar-powered cars, designing wind-turbine propellers, using hydrogen fuel cells, and cooking with solar ovens.

Students will to see firsthand the impact of alternative energy, not only through classroom experiments, but also through a tour of the school's facilities.

Opened in 2007, Whitmore Lake High School received Silver LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Its environmentally friendly design features a geothermal heat pump system engineered with 47 miles of underground tubing. Alternative energy has been an increasingly significant factor in the growth of Michigan's economy as local universities, organizations, and businesses invest in energy research and product development. And the school's location near Ann Arbor and Detroit also stresses the importance of alternative energy education and the need to prepare students for jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

"We wanted to move alternative energy education beyond the science classroom to make it available to all students, because it is such an critical topic today and to the future of our nation," says Tom DeKeyser, Whitmore Lake High School Principal.

Through a pilot program, the school is using Creative Learning Systems’ Alternative Energy SmartLab, a fully integrated system of curriculum, computer workstations, software, and technology tools for construction and experimentation. Creative Learning Systems is a developer of 21st century learning labs and media production systems for K-12 schools and districts.

The curriculum provides a project-based, multidisciplinary approach to alternative energy education, combining core subjects such as science, math, geography, history, and political science while reinforcing 21st century skills.

"The study of alternative energy is a perfect platform for the development of 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, and information and communication technology," says Matt Dickstein, CEO of Creative Learning Systems. "Alternative energy exploration requires a different approach by teachers and students, because technology is in continuous flux and the most important innovations have yet to be defined. This is definitely not a subject where the answers are found in a text book.”

« Back | Print