Funding Awarded: $118,222

INDUSTRY PARTNERS:

Granite Falls Energy, Fagan Engineering, Outland Renewable Energy

Key Partners:

MN West Community & Technical College, Communities for Responsible Energy/Environment Demonstration Project (CREED), Southwest MN State University, Southwest/West Central and MN Valley Service Cooperatives, MN Future Farmers of America, SW Workforce Council

Project Summary:

 In Granite Falls & Marshall, CREED (Communities for Responsible Energy/Environment Demonstration Project) is providing hands-on training to high school teachers from southwest Minnesota in renewable energy technologies. This practical knowledge will be integrated into their science, math, and agricultural classes. This project is a partnership with Outland Renewable Energy (a wind services company), Granite Falls Energy ethanol plant, and Fagan Engineering (specialists in biofuel plant design), the Southwest/ West Central Service and MN Valley Cooperatives, the local community college and university, and other community organizations.

Project Outcomes:

• 15 teachers completed Phase I of the training, a 2-week intensive course

• 12 teachers received graduate credit through SMSU for the course, with help of MNREM scholarships

• All teachers are developing new renewable energy curriculum to use in their classrooms

• All teachers had the opportunity to select a renewable energy toolkit to use in the classroom

Project Description:

"This project came about through the requests of high school science, chemistry, agriculture, and vocational- ag instructors for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) training curriculum that could be delivered to students," said Duane Carrow, Director of Renewable Energy Programs at MN West Community & Technical College.

By integrating renewable energy concepts into this curriculum, both students and teachers are exposed to potential career options in this growing area. The curriculum includes tours of local and regional renewable energy companies such as Granite Falls Energy ethanol plant, St. Paul District Energy biomass-fueled hot water district heating system, and wind services company Outland Energy.

"Because of this experience, I could make connections for the students with some of the companies that I had the opportunity to tour. So, when we were talking about energy production in class, I could relate what I had observed at the St. Paul's District Energy plant and compare that to renewable energy that the students were more familiar with," said Benson High School Science teacher, Ruth Ahrndt. District Energy heats and cools buildings and homes in downtown Saint Paul and adjacent areas using the largest biomass-fueled hot water district heating system in the United States.

The 6-credit graduate level course was delivered through Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, using materials and an instructor from CREED (Communities for Responsible Energy/Environment Demonstration Project).

Each participant also received a $500 grant to purchase equipment to bring back to their classrooms. "I chose a wind generator kit," said Ahrndt. "So, my students have an opportunity to work with wind energy on a small scale to get a basic understanding of how it works, looking at the different variables that are involved in wind energy production."

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Emerging Renewable Energy Program Training (EREPT)

The EREPT project offered training to 15 senior high school science, math and agriculture teachers from 9 high schools in the integration of renewable energy curriculum into their high school classes. Two weeks were spent each summer in training (June 2009 and June 2010) using curriculum developed by the Communities for Responsible Energy/Environment Demonstration (CREED) project, in conjunction with Minnesota West faculty, Southwest Minnesota State University faculty and industry Advisory Committee members from southwestern Minnesota renewable energy companies.
Part I of the curriculum included: energy basics, mathematics for energy problem solving, solar direct (thermal, photovoltaic), introduction to biomass energy, photosynthesis, and plant growth, biomass conversion processes, heating value of fuels, sugar-lignin platform for production of ethanol, biodiesel production, ethanol from corn mash and electrical energy from biomass.
Part II includes: introduction to solar and meteorological energy, hydroelectric power generation, wind energy basics, turbine blade design experiments, environmental and economic concerns of wind energy development, and erection of a small wind tower and anemometer.

Participants received free training models for their own classroom use – wind power, fuel cell car, hydropower, green power.
In addition, participants had the option of earning 12 credits of graduate education provided by SMSU. These graduate credits helped teachers integrate the new material into their classes and help them to meet graduation standards in their disciplines.
At present, approximately 450 high school students enrolled in schools which had teachers participate in EREPT have been exposed to emerging renewable energy curriculum integrated in their existing science, math and agriculture high school classes. It will also introduce high school juniors and seniors to careers in the renewable energy field with the expectation that more students will choose these careers.

Minnesota West Community & Technical College http://www.mnwest.edu/

provides post-secondary training programs in Biofuels 

http://www.mnwest.edu/programs/program-type/aas/biofuels-technology/

and Wind http://www.mnwest.edu/programs/program-type/aas/wind-energy-technology/ .

Minnesota West’s Minnesota Energy Enterprise Center is a national leader in curriculum development for renewable energy. Students have the opportunity to train locally and find high tech, high wage jobs in the renewable energy fields in southwest Minnesota.

Emerging Renewable Energy Program Training (EREPT) - Part II

Six math, science and agriculture teachers from area high schools participated in and completed Part II of the renewable energy training (EREPT) held at the Granite Falls Campus in June.  The group began their training last summer.  The focus of the program was to expose participants to a wide-range of emerging and existing renewable energy fields; strengthen the science and math backgrounds of the participants; provide insights on how the emerging energy topics relate to the math and science currently being taught; and help integrate this new material into their high school curriculum so that it can help meet state standards.

The program was made possible by funding through a WIRED Grant and a partnership between Minnesota West, SW/WC Service Cooperative, CREED and SMSU.

Participants were exposed to lectures, labs, discussions, and tours during the 2 week training.  In addition, they were eligible to receive 12 graduate credits over the course of the 2 summers through SMSU.  The WIRED Grant provided tuition reimbursement for the credits and also made possible the purchase of instructional kits for the teachers to take back and use in their classrooms.

As a result of their newly developed curriculum, high school students in SW Minnesota will be introduced to careers in the renewable energy field.

CREED instructor Darryl Thayer led and directed participants in the erection of a small 30-foot wind tower using a gin pole and guy wires.  

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