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Ask Slashdot: Classroom Eco-Projects Suited To Alaska?
First time accepted submitter shortyadamk writes "I just started a new job where I will have to visit many high school science classes and have the students participate in 1-3 day projects regarding sustainable energy and environmental sciences (in order to promote the regional universities' programs). I've looked at a number of the boxed projects available online and many of them are solar projects; my biggest issue with that is that we are in rural Alaska and much of the time I'll be visiting classes will be in the winter (when we have very little sunlight — and even if we did it would be too cold to go and play in). I'm curious if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for demonstrations and projects that can be done in the classroom and do not require sunlight. One other catch is that the project has to be small enough to fit in a suitcase or plastic tote; we don't have any roads connecting the villages so I will have to fly the project from school to school with me."
> I will have to fly the project from school to school with me
Sounds like you should be doing demonstrations of oil drilling techniques.
Everyone bring your rifles to class tomorrow. Billy, you're excused as usual.
see, that's easy.
Just figure out how many houses can be powered by hot air coming out of Sarah Palin, it's going to be an interesting project and definitely different from everybody else.
Maybe she can be used to power USPS in Alaska, she has the money, right? She is now one of them rich people. Use her to power USPS and the globe.
You can't handle the truth.
Heat some fresh wood chips in a test tube with a gas burner. Transfer the liquid to a small distiller (the kids already know this one from their dad's shed) and collect the burnable methanole fraction. Use it for a direct methanole fuel cell an charge a RC car.
Do the boxed solar projects actually require real sun in order to be educational? I mean, would the principles be evident to the students if you shone an electric light at solar panels indoors?
There's an awful lot of sunlight in Alaska during the summer, and the students should have long enough memories to know that.
Oh, definitely! Check out the United States of (coal) Energy by Scholastic! It's a great example of an eco project that explains the clean benefit of Coal and Oil, energy sources that should be well-understood (and loved!) by the people of Alaska! - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/22/scholastic-sponsorships_n_862815.html
Get an LED light and some tiny starter pots and seeds.
I can help you out with that.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Seems like if you're promoting the programs from the regional university, you should have examples related to those programs. Surely they aren't doing solar-based programs in Alaska?
Obviously you could pack up a small turbine and multimeter and take it outside and show the kids the power generation. You might even contact the Alaskan wind industries asking for a kit to raise awareness in schools.
Another thought is thermoelectrics via Seebeck and Peltier Effects. I think you can pick up cheap little thermoelectric kits that are horribly inefficient (10%?) but if you could coordinate with the school, you might have access to a heat exhaust or something nearby where you could set up the device and show the kids that you can harvest some of the energy coming off the exhausts. Failing that, you could boil a pot of water and position it over it? If it's cold as hell outside, you might even be able to just push it up against a window?
Really, it's just be important to get the kids thinking critically about where energy transfer is lost and how it can be harvested. Most importantly I would stress the efficiency analysis so they realize why your little device isn't the answer to all their problems (but with enough research and knowledge they might find a better solution). You know, give them a little lesson on initial cost versus return and figure out how long it would take your device sitting there at that external temperature for you to fully recoup your cost.
My work here is dung.
Do the following project: how long can Sarah survive naked in the snow.
I recall seeing somewhere a stationary bike apparatus, e.g. "treadmill", which triatheletes use in the off-season. It's a frame that you put your own bicycle onto, and then pedal away like there is no tomorrow.
The frame I saw folded up into something pretty small and easily portable. I don't know if bicycles are as popular in Alaska as they are in the lower 48, but if so then perhaps a student would volunteer their own for a few days during your presentations.
You'd want to modify the apparatus so that it could be used to power a lamp, or something else that you would likely find at each destination. In fact, purpose-built treadmills-as-power-generators probably exist.
A nice side-effect of such an apparatus is that it tangibly illustrates just how much power even a small lamp consumes, considering how hard students need to pedal to generate the electricity required. You could demonstrate that CFL lights use less electricity by demonstrating that they don't have to pedal as hard to light it, and could show that the excess electricity of the incandescent lamp is converted to heat with a simple non-contact, IR thermometer like those sold at Radio Shack. Then swap the lamp for an X-Box, etc. etc.
Teaching students to use less electricity is an even better goal than teaching them new ways to generate it.
b.g.
Bring Battery Powered lights to simulate sunlight.
Kids could learn about farming, and grow some of their own food year round. Increases carrying capacity of the earth. Maybe a carbon sink, I don't know how long it will take to offset carbon used in construction...
In Alaska, would solar be a good choice for sustainable energy? Or would wind and tidal (hydro) power be more relevant? I think a small wind turbine would be a better choice for your demo.
Simplest would be a laptop with the right software. I don't know what might be available software-wise, but a little research should turn up something.
Is there a reason you can't use a grow light instead of solar power from the sun?
For an elaborate solution, assuming you have internet access from the remote sites... Do a 'Silent Running' type Biosphere somewhere sunny, with robots that can be remotely controlled to perform tasks as needed in this biosphere. The students would love it and you would get good publicity for the program as well as some corporate sponsorships if you pull it off.
That's all I got for you.
- WildTech
Use a heating element from coffee maker and an aquarium pump with some tubing that circulates hot water that runs a sterling machine.
http://www.yourownpower.com/Power/binaryschematic.jpg
Could a miniature tidal generator be constructed in a lucite box?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power
Can we get 10% of your salary as a commission for doing your job for you?
You have them build them, check out the results, and then you can say "Now you know why solar isn't a panacea for our energy needs."
How about an infrared camera and those foam things you stick behind AC wall sockets?
Take the IR camera outside to see where the biggest losses are.
Instead of taking jabs at Alaska, let me offer an idea: How about a project on biological energy? Something on the creation and use of biodiesel? You could create the fuel in the classroom with the students and use a small motor to demonstrate the use. The only caveat is that you will have to fly with these liquid materials, some of them flammable. On the same token, you could do an ethanol project. Are either of these projects feasibly suitable to the Alaskan ecosystem? Does it allow for the growth of the vegetation required?
here's one: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Microbial-Fuel-Cell-MFC-Part-II/
You can google up a bunch of alternatives, and buy simple kits if your budget runs to that. But the ingredients are cheap, you could save money kitting up a bunch yourself.
It's been a while since I learned about Alaska, but don't they have significant methane trapped in peat moss? That could be a good tie in to the methanole fuel.
Another option would be to get a miniaturized steam engine. People may think they are antiquated, but steam is what generates almost all of the electricity in this country. The heat can come from geo-thermal, nuclear, solar salts, coal, etc... but it all does the same thing: boil water.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
renewable energy is bullshit. The only components that aren't are hydroelectric and burning municipal waste. Maybe you can set some trash on fire.
Or, maybe you can show them a cloud chamber and have them build a scintillator or reproduce Rutherford's experiment that showed that atoms have nuclei.
Oh, and it's your job, quit asking other people to do it for you. I have half a mind to forward this post to your regional university's physics department.
I suggest diving into the synthetic biology movement. Take a look at the BioBricks Foundation. Search the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Maybe there is something missing that you might contribute. Join iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition. It is a worldwide synthetic biology competition aimed mostly at undergraduate university and high school students. Some people there are doing amazing eco-friendly projects. And don't be scared by the recent anti-science hysteria. Genetic engineering in general and synthetic biology in particular is not as hard as people tend to think. It doesn't even has to be too serious. For example, in 2006 the MIT team engineered E. coli to produce a wintergreen scent during exponential phase and a banana scent during stationary phase, known as the "banana-fart" bacteria. Some kids are engineering just amazing DNA to produce bacteria that help to digest pollution, or converts sunlight into energy that is easy to use. There is a lot to be done in synthetic biology and both BioBricks and iGEM are directed towards young people who want to experiment and collaborate, without the need to synthesise everything from scratch. You don't need sunlight to do that and you don't need expensive equipment any more. These days people are sending DNA by email and change it like it was just a computer program - which it is in a sense, but it is software that builds hardware. This is truly amazing stuff and I believe this the future of fixing our planet. We have to help mother nature. And this is the most optimal way to do it - from the ground up. iGEM and BioBricks is a great way for young students to dive into it.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
that you are pushing a technology that has flaws and you can't demo it because of the flaws. Maybe isn't the solve all problems solution that some think it is, unless you live in a sunny place. Change to something that is relevant for the area, not something that they will see has no impact on them.
Why would Alaska want renewable energy? If you produce more CO2 then maybe you could go out and play in the winter.
Yoghurt
Ferment some reindeer shit in an insulated container, and burn the resulting methane.
seeing a hands on demonstration of reflectivity and a surface's albedo and a demonstration, and forgive my ignorance to the name of this phenomena, the results of the feedback loop created when melt-water sinks through ice and flows underneath the ice. I'm a little foggy here but I believe the rate of melting increases and/or the ice's movement accelerates.
Tell them if there are millions of civilizations out there, these uncountable alien beings are probably in the same boat we are, living at the grace and at the mercy of our constantly evolving universe. And if you can fit in there that what we know as a species and what we know as individuals is pretty small compared to what we have yet to discover and may not discover. And that there is a lot of what we think we know that is likely pretty damn wrong. Give them humility is what I guess I'm saying.
to drive your solar panel! Problem solved. Then teach them about the Law of Thermodynamics and the folly of perpetual motion machines in history. Then talk about the data from: http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/, and the infeasibility of any energy source to satisfy the hungry maw of exponential energy consumption. Then you might consider a small wind turbine (driven by a fan, of course--no I'm serious, you could use the fan as a prop and explain what happens when you reverse the energy path), and touch on geothermal and tidal power. Tidal power is something you could make your own prop for (just add water on-site and be the wave machine).
Still think the Sun Lamp idea is funniest and quite realistic given the craze to trade food for energy and other such nonsensical ideas.
Your problem is actually the countries problem. Green Energy works good in some spots and not all. Solar, Wind, Tidal, Hydroelectric, all have good and bad locations. More portable energy, Coal, Oil, Nuclear. Can be planned for and allocated and distributed anywhere for 24/7 usage, however tends to carry a larger environmental cost (Or just crazy people who fear it blindly like for Nuclear).
I remember in school an important lesson that most people do not get about environmentalism. Everything you do has a trade-off. How many fish die in those Tidal/Hydroelectric power. How many trees will you need to knock down for you Solar/Wind farm and what do do about night/no wind... There isn't any golden ticket for free energy they all come with a cost. Right now we are seeing the Fossil Fuels have been giving off there costs for too long and is making the problem worse.
You should be teaching those kids about trade offs, not some magical future tech that will solve all our problems. Explain how to generate electricity how we use different types of energy. How usually when changing one energy to an other there is often a loss to a different form of energy that isn't useful. How to store energy, batteries, flywheels, springs... Heck show them when you stretch a rubber-band it gets warmer, and if you let it contract it gets cooler.
You need to train kids to be think clearly environmentalism not envionuts and go out wasting more resources to stop all the evils that come up.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
How about a small project to show wind energy? I don't know if you are specifically looking for energy-type projects, but that is one I can think of off the top of my head. If there is no wind, then they can blow on it. There are many tutorials on google and I wouldn't know which would be the best/easiest/cheapest one.
Obviously you could pack up a small turbine and multimeter and take it outside and show the kids the power generation.
The kind of temperatures you'd be talking in the winter, I wouldn't want to take kids outside any more than I had to.
I'm pretty sure if you're a kid in Alaska, you're smart enough to bundle up before you go to school. I grew up in Minnesota and I would have to wait half an hour to an hour for the bus to get to school outside, throwing snow around in pretty darn cold temperatures. We'd put on snowsuits, galoshes and scarves and go outside all day Saturday sledding and throwing snowballs. Fun as hell. There were recesses that were easily 0 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit on a daily basis -- sometimes colder. Anchorage is downright balmy compared to that. Granted Northern Alaska gets colder, it is possible to live outside for several hours if you're suitably dressed.
Inuits and Native Americans did it and I'd wager so can Alaskans.
Why not ask the university? Seriously, any student or professor worth knowing will take five minutes and try to think up a program or two.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
If your going to be a teacher and cant figure out SOMETHING to do in one of the most wild areas on north America then you dont need to be teaching these kids.
I mean fucking seriously whats Alaska known for, wilderness, oil, survival, I dunno do a eco project on how pumping oil hurts the permafrost you moron
I'd imagine you could create a geothermal power model with a bunsen burner (magma), a round bottom flask (underground water), a glass tube (for rising steam), and a 'turbine' light enough to be spun by the steam. It's likely the only item you'd actually have to bring with you is the turbine.
As for applicability, Alaska has more geothermal land area than any other state (Because it's huge).
My suggestion is a field trip to Costa Rica...:-)
Twenda Learning: Educational Apps that Engage.
Rocket stoves and fuel efficiency.
A thermal camera along with a study of various insulators such as foams, plastic, types of glass panes.
Make some kind of DIY motor that runs on snow. Should work given temperature differences. And has a nice "But that's impossible!" factor.
DIY paper recycling.
DIY plastic bag recycling by boiling them in a pan. You can make nice strong plastic this way. Heck bring a mold and make some kind of knick knack they get to take home. Be sure it has a logo and website stamped on it somewhere.
Turn a small DC motor into a wind-powered generator.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Maybe something to do with organic batteries? I don't have any hands on experience, but they do exist, and some don't involve toxic chemistry. I sort of vaguely think there are even some very minor practical applications in some places. At the very least, you should be able to gin up enough power to light an LED or spin a small motor from a kit you can carry in your suitcase. Maybe you can even generate/store power from/in something cobbled together from local materials at the school.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
What I read there was something like, "I have to visit many high school science classes to program the students with Green propaganda, on behalf of the Universities who are raking in funding from Government for this kind of thing.
Also ask on www.fieldlines.com
That's where a lot of renewable energy people hang out. (Among them is "Wild In Alaska", who built a wind turbine out of a scrap garbage disposal motor to power his pickup camper.)
Obvious choices for Alaska are:
- Wind power.
- Thermoelectric on exhaust from wood-burning house heating systems.
- Heat engines ditto. Sterling or steam. (Note that these are mainly experimental at this point. No commercial systems are available as far as I know for generation from waste heat at less than industrial size instalations.)
- Diesel generators running on biodiesel fuel (from food production waste) with exhaust heat scavenged for heating.
- Solar in SUMMER.
All of these - along with related battery storage, control systems, house heating, energy conservation, etc., are discussed extensively on that board.
And most of them are impractical in much of Alaska.
Why are the Alaska schools hosting and promoting this? Alaska is NOT a good site for renewable energy: Extreme cold. Winter storms that can knock down, tear up, or ice up a wind turbine - in an environment where repair work is hazardous. Negligible to zero solar input for months when energy is most needed. Main available energy resources are wood, crude oil, natural gas, and animal fat. The price/performance ratio on virtually all renewable energy systems is even more horrendous there than in the contiguous forty-eight.
This sounds to me like the politically correct school administrators have run amok. Unless it is intended to teach them what they'll find if they move to other states.
I strongly recommend that you ALSO teach them that the current systems are not cost-effective in their area.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
and put her in a giant hamster wheel.
Does it have to be power related? Why not something like composting? You could put a bunch of worms and organic matter into a plastic tote fairly easily. I might not want to travel with you and your compost, but other than the smell it should be fine, I'd think....
Try your snowsuit at -40 degrees. Temperatures where if you chuck a mugful of freshly boiled water in the air, it's frozen before it hits the ground.
You mean like this?
Go ahead and treat your kids like porcelain dolls, it's your choice. The reality is that we were outside having fun exercising in extreme temperatures.
Yes, Barrow is colder but given many layers and face protection, you can stand outside for twenty minutes while some guy hooks a multimeter up to a turbine.
Yawn.
1-3 day projects regarding sustainable energy and environmental sciences
Most/all of the answers have been mostly boxed engineering demos, not actual science projects.
The most obvious science project I can think of is gathering a whole bunch of snow, melting it, and figuring out what is inside it other than H2O.
I have done this, and there is a whole heck of a lot of pollen, and all manner of strange dusts under a microscope. Also just plain ole dirt. And its fun to "core sample" once you've got multiple snowfalls. Its easy to see distinct layers.
I'm thinking your suitcase and budget are not big enough for chemical analysis but a Really good trinocular microscope with video output to a TV is probably realistic. Add some ruled counting slides (forget the proper terminology, sorry) and some buckets / beakers to melt the water, maybe a tiny centrifuge and test tubes to concentrate "whatever"... Get yourself a wide collection of variable pore size filter papers and the chemistry gear to do vacuum filtration thru the various sizes.
Final advice, don't collect the yellow snow.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I live in Maine and insulation is a big thing here in the winter. Buy one of these http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-TLD100-Thermal-Detector/dp/B001LMTW2S
Go around the school, or class room and look for thermal leaks, ask students to find ways to solve these leaks. You can even map out areas that are most common to thermal leaks.
The never-melting chunk of ice!
Maybe you could create a shoe box sized demo refrigerator that had a copper plate on the back and insulation on the front and sides such that the copper plate side would be exposed to the outside air to keep food cold while allowing the interior heat not to escape due to the insulation in the front and sides of the mini fridge.
I live in Maine and insulation is a big thing here in the winter. Buy one of these http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-TLD100-Thermal-Detector/dp/B001LMTW2S Go around the school, or class room and look for thermal leaks, ask students to find ways to solve these leaks. You can even map out areas that are most common to thermal leaks.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Got Ice? got water? than perhaps make a project where students can use water to power a small clock. Simple steps of having a Salt water reservoir and a fresh water reservoir, using a different type of metal in each water connect the leads to the clock. Or use a Volt meter to get the amount of current you are getting depending on the levels of salt and what types of metal you are using.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/estuary-power-salt-and-fresh-water-generate-electricity.php
Ive had good luck with demonstrations in Alaska of Sterling Engines and other external combustion technologies. They are quite popular for Alaskan audiences since the majority of the state has no central power grid, and in many cases no traditional running water, but will have a wood fire burning most of the year. Sterling engines for power generation, or even simple circulation systems that can be used to heat water for bathing (we filled a canoe with water and rigged a pedal power pump to circulate the water through a coil of copper tubing buried in the coals of a campfire)
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
I strongly suggest you talk to folks at the Museum of the North[1], in Fairbanks. They currently have a special exhibit[2] on energy sources in the North (its more than oil).
Kickass museum, btw.
[1] http://www.uaf.edu/museum/
[2] http://www.uaf.edu/museum/exhibits/special/
The whole idea of packing up a science project and trying to check it into a plane's cargo compartment just won't fly these days. If the scanner at the TSA check[point doesn't understand it, and why would they, they'll simply flag it as a terrorist device and have it destroyed and you detained.
People have had little homemade very harmless devices built into Altoids mint tins taken and themselves detained because all the scanner could identify was a mysterious box with a few loose wires coming out of it. Caused panic in the airport security and shut the airport down for hours while they looked for more of these mysterious little terrorist devices.
No, don't try to move anything educational and scientific around via the air ways. You'll just put yourself in the way of a world of hurt.
Since your flying from village to village your probably looking at southeast and/or a Aleutian islands. One thing those kinds of places have in abundance is waves. Perhaps you could find or create a wave generator demonstration kit.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
Help explain why the 2010 oil spill disappeared fairly quickly in 85 degree Gulf of Mexico water and slowly in 40 degree Prince William Sound water in 1989. Maybe the ambient microbes matter too.
When you are talking sustainable power sources, I'm talking sources for the next million plus years not the next few hundred, there are only three real sources of power. Solar is the primary source since even fossil fuels are stored solar energy and all bio-mass is essentially solar energy that has been stored. Second is moon based which includes tidal power since the Moon is the source of tidal energy. The third is geothermal. It's been said that getting a 100% of all our energy needs for the next thousand years wouldn't reduce the Earth's core temperature one degree so it's a potential long term solution.
Your problem is in Alaska none of it is available readily in the winter months. There's some wind but that's essentially solar it's source is just many miles away. Rivers are either frozen or reduced in volume in the winter since there's no melting so that's not a solution. You have to dig down past the permafrost so geothermal isn't practical or everyone would heat their houses with it in Alaska. Really the only source other than wind in winter has to be stored energy and then you are limited to bio-mass. Most of the practical ones are going to have an eeewwww factor for school kids since they'd be based on animal and human waste. You could show how decaying plant matter produces heat. Let's say you have an insulated box of damp hay or even kitchen scraps. The problem is you need mass to generate a lot of heat. The potential use would be to heat a house in the winter time.
One of my favorites is bio-gas. A little remembered form is wood gas. You can look up wood bio-gas and find plans for making a wood burning gasoline engine. We aren't talking steam or even heat. It's running on gases released from burning wood in a low oxygen environment. If you know a decent mechanic they aren't hard to build. Something like a million cars and tractors were running on it during WWII due to fuel shortages.
Congratulations on your new global-citizen-indoctrination job. I'm sure you'll do well, but you first need to understand that the "eco-project" that you're expected to present is NOT supposed to teach science or critical thinking or anything along those lines - instead, it should emphasize the importance of the students' sacrifices for the common good, reliance on appointed "experts" for the amount of sacrifice required, and their total submission to the global leaders for guidance in every aspect of their lives. Think of it as your contribution to "positive societal transformation".
You can find some really good reference material right here, and be sure to check out this stuff. Good Luck!!
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
use phase changing materials for semi long term storage of energy :)!
its usually a quite simple chemical process that can be done in a chemistry lab class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_material
I would amplify some of the comments suggesting a non-engineering solution by saying that, if you have not already done so, you might capitalize on some existing programs already extant in the state. Among these, there are or two LTER Schoolyard programs in Alaska. Schoolyard is the outreach and education component of the National Science Foundation's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. The Bonanza Creek LTER and their Schoolyard Programis hosted at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and, although the Arctic LTER is hosted at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, their Schoolyard Program does have a local component. Each may have ideas and directions you can use.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard Feynman
Wow, pegged again!
Your right, Alaska is unsuited for many energy solutions.
Solar - No sun light.
Wind - Wind is generally associated with areas of varying temperatures. There is very little wind in the winter in these remote areas.
Bio-Fuel Cells/Nuclear/Hydrogen/Other High End Tech - The investment wont ever meet the financial needs to justify it for communities of 200-400 people.
If you want to make a difference you should talk about efficiency and weatherization. Two things that the kids can use to make a direct impact on their future energy consumption needs.
For efficiency, simple things like shutting off unneeded lights or charging up devices during off peak hours. You could get a battery and a number of powered devices and they have to accomplish as many tasks as possible using those devices in the correct order. You would need to design the devices yourself so they can each do a simple task.
For weatherization, use a thermal imaging to show he loss from a few containers that you design.
Since the tree lines runs through the state. Yes, Alaska has lots of trees – but vast areas lie north of the tree line. Since he talks about flying into remote areas I would guess he would be far, far north. I would lay odds that the students have access to wood chips – but it is no guaranty.
I don't think the tree line is where you think. Note that it is the dark green line, not the orange line:
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/tree-line-in-the-arctic
There is no shortage of remote settlements below the tree line. And above the tree line you will find mostly oil industry workers.
Living in Alaska myself, my first thought was perhaps a miniature biomass CHP(Combined Heat&Power) utilizing a stirling engine.
Basically, you burn wood, the heat drives a small stirling engine that generates a few watts, with the waste heat recovered to help heat the home.
20% electricity, 60% heat.
I don't read AC A human right
Obviously you can't drill a hole through the permafrost and install a geothermal heat pump at each school you visit, but you could make a mock-up and explain how if you go below the permafrost the temp is always about 54deg F and how you can save on heating costs substantially by tapping into this heat reservoir.
"Rural Alaska" isn't specific enough, given Alaska's massive size and hugely diverse range of terrains and climates. It has everything from rain forests to tundras, ice fields to evergreen forests. People who have never been there tend to have a fixed image in their head of what "Alaskan wilderness" means, and it's never accurate.
How about... (drumroll) ....: A monkey with 5 (!) asses
?
Bring along digital voice recorders such as those used for dictation, a couple of laptops, plus digital still cameras, possible a small and cheap digital video camera. Get your students to interview the village elders about THEIR knowledge, and post the results to the web on your return. After all, these folks are part of a culture that survives in a hostile world right next door to Mars. Let them show and tell YOU what arctic science is all about.
You don't say what portion of the state you are in. What about geothermal?
Other options include wind, tidal, and wave energy sources. These may be interesting simply because of the technical challenges posed by the local conditions.
Three specific resources I would look into:
- The Anchorage School District used to have a Science Resource Center with modular prepackaged lessons. Assuming the center still exists I would suspect they may have some great ideas and probably would have some lesson plans they could email you.
- Contact the offices of any or all of the oil companies in Anchorage (or a local office if there is one). They actively search for this sort of thing because it is good publicity and they have lots or resources to draw from.
- Contact the offices of the native corporation that covers your portion of the state. I'm certain they are actively looking at renewable projects as they are always interested in investing local and long term.
I suggest you do some research about it.
The saline solution in several glasses creates a charge at the right temperature.
Worked great for me several years ago lol
In Alaska if you hunt withing 24 hours of flying the aircraft generally gets confiscated...
just shine a lamp on the solar cells. free energy!
The farther north you go the lower altitude treeline is. You go far enough north and treeline is below sea level.
So the "far north: that the posted question eludes to is either treeless or has a few little black spruce that might be about as tall as you are. Using a black spruce from anywhere near the arctic circle as a "renewable resource" is laughable. A spruce tree 1" in diameter that is that far north is probably 100+ years old.
Alaska seems like an ideal place to teach them about energy conservation, rather than energy generation.
Consider teaching them about how much energy every day items use, and how to reduce that energy use without losing much functionality. Depending on the age of the kids, you might talk to them about the local costs of energy use. If you can talk them into some very simple power-saving measures, like turning off the lights in rooms that aren't in use, turning off the TV when they aren't watching it, and turning off their computers when they aren't using them (instead of leaving them on all the time, like many children do), then you'll educate them on conservation and reduce their parent's energy bills.
If you can get local businesses or the school to chip in, you could teach the kids how to insulate a window for the winter. The materials might not travel well on a plane - I'm not really sure how much stuff you are willing or able to carry on these trips. It would be a very practical lesson that they can use in the real world, it's probably something they've seen (but maybe not done) at home, and it might even help the school save on energy bills.
You could also teach them about rechargeable batteries. These have the advantage of being small and easy to carry on a plane. If you can get them to use rechargeable batteries in some aspects of their lives (video game controllers come to mind), and teach them how to prolong the life of a rechargeable battery (laptops and cell phones), then you'd be teaching them something useful to keep their cell phones charged longer and you'd be reducing environmental waste. You'd be amazed at how many kids don't understand that the reason their cellphone or laptop battery dies after only a few hours is related to the 17 apps they have open but aren't using, or some simple settings that they don't have enabled. If you want to expand on this with high school students, you can teach them about how batteries work and maybe discuss some of the research that goes into making batteries smaller and more efficient. If you can find one, show them an old-school giant cell phone or laptop and compare it to something modern.
Surprised I am the first to mention it. Garbage reactors turn biological waste into either heat or natural gas. I think in the freezing cold of an alaskan winter nice reactor connected to heat exchanger or a gas burner would make everyone feel a bit bitter. The trouble is it takes a while to get the reaction going, if this is a one day project idea that might not work. A small reactor will fit in light aircraft when empty though.
Rather than energy generation, you could focus on energy consumption. Look at the heat insulating properties of different substances. You could test things like clothes/coats, styrofoam, paper, window glass, wood, bricks, dirt, standard home insulation products. Put a heat source (light bulb) on one side and use a thermal detector on the other. Combine this idea with using the thermal detector on the school building itself.
Energy efficiency experiments would be especially relevant. If you're dealing with visiting students in the winter months, then an IR camera would be hugely relevant and rather cool to use: shine it at the walls and windows, see that the windows leak far more than the walls, and see that the walls don't equally protect against heat. While a good quality IR camera isn't particularly cheap, more and more utilities are purchasing them for their own energy efficiency programs (many times mandated by law), so you may be able to borrow it or co-write a grant.
Have you looked at fuel cells. There are lost of educational fuel cell kits available. http://www.fuelcellstore.com/en/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=12
One of the most needed technologies for regions beyond +-60 degrees latitude is long term
stable and controllable heat reservoir storage.
Knowing what kind and how much insulation to use to store a specific number of
calories for an indefinite period of time is a major experiment.
Also, what types of materials are best for storage of heat.
If you can store heat. You can use it later.
I don't know if you can find this as a project "in a box", but ... As a 50 year plus resident of Alaska and someone that used to be involved with the oil industry and later alternative energy, I have always been fainated by the possibilities of the Sterling engine since first learing of it.
Most seem to think of the Sterling as a "heat" engine, I've always looked at it as more of a tempurature differential situation. Not that difficult to find, even in Winter.
You might also check out "Micro Combined Heat & Power", micro-CHP. A varient of the Sterling engine principals.
We may have long dark Winters, but come Summer and you have 18 to 24 hours of sun shining on your building, you want to have someplace to put that heat and save it for Winter. Or at least use the energy from it for something useful and save your money for next Winter's heating bill.
The sustainable wind turbine, or some type of energy reclaimation. Warming of some kind ifs viscous fluid from cafeteria exhausts, etc but have them team up and create small short term projects from it. Power savings derived from the use of different insularity materials., different types of lightinge methods. I envy you on this good luck.