Great Oak High School students take on Edison Challenge

How about an urban wind turbine atop homes and government buildings in the city of Temecula, or hydroelectric power generating part of a home’s electric power by the flush of toilet?

Vince Amabile, a senior at Great Oak High School in Temecula, said he thinks urban wind turbines are the answer to rising energy costs. (Photo by Maggie Avants)

These were some of the proposals made by students in Carrie Burdick-Rutz’ advanced placement science class at Great Oak High School in Temecula Friday as they presented their entries for the Edison Challenge.

According to Burdick-Rutz, the Edison Challenge is a competitive program for students to demonstrate their interest and abilities in environmental issues related to energy use or conservation.

Now in its fourth year, the Edison Challenge is open to middle school and high school students in Edison’s coverage area. Student’s proposals are due March 8 and will be judged March 23-30 at the University of Southern California’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, a partner with Edison International in the challenge.

The challenge has multiple parts that include developing and teaching a lesson plan to students, research proposal, community outreach and a presentation, Burdick-Rutz said.

“I’ve always assigned a research project and community service, but this put them both together,” she said. “The benefit is they instantly get into so much detail, they are reaching out to the community, they are competing and they are working with students whom they normally wouldn’t work with.”

To an audience that included Temecula Mayor Jeff Comerchero and Temecula school board member Kristi Rutz-Robbins, the high school seniors presented topics such as “Conservation of Ocean Resources,” “Water Conservation,” “Disposal of Electronic Waste,” “Disposal of Household Hazardous Waste,” “Electrical Generation through Waterpower” and “Electrical Generation through Kinetic Energy.”

Great Oak student Ryan Rigali’s group thinks electrical generation through waterpower is a feasible, inexpensive idea that could easily be incorporated into homes and businesses.

It involves placing an alternator on plumbing pipes, and every time a toilet gets flushed, the alternator would spin and send up to 600 watts of energy into a home or business’ energy flow to help power light bulbs and other common household appliances. According to the students, the alternators can be purchased at any improvement store for $25 a piece.

“It is a very reasonable form of power, with the rising electric costs,” Ryan said.

The focus of another group was on generating power through wind turbines. Student Keith Hill said the average home uses 50 to 60 kilowatts of electric per day. At a cost of $8,000 a piece, his group said the wind turbines can generate up to 48 kilowatts of electric per day.

“The use of a wind turbine is a sustainable method, as opposed to coal and petroleum, which have significant impact on our environment,” Keith said. “If select facilities like city hall, police and fire departments, and schools could use them, it could offset energy costs.”

Comerchero was full of questions about the proposal, asking whether the group looked into the cost of solar power versus wind power. He shared with students that the new city hall being built will incorporate solar power.

“It is energizing when we see kids at this age having a passion for the real issues – issues we are already working with,” Comerchero said.

Another group of students said people need to become more aware of overfishing, which happens when fishing boats catch sea life that they were not targeting. Sea turtles, whales and dolphins all get caught up in nets, when the boats may be fishing for shrimp. The students didn’t think people need to stop eating shrimp and other seafood, but that consumption needs to go down in order for overfishing to stop destructing the world’s sea life.

Electronic waste, or e-waste, as the students termed it, is an additional environmental concern. Old iPods, cell phones and other unused electronics should not be sitting around in homes, students said. The group encouraged a curbside electronic recycling bin, which could be picked up along with other household waste.

The mayor discussed with them the practicality of the suggestion, which students had already researched by contacting Temecula Recycling.

Comerchero said the revenue recycling companies could make would be an added incentive to start such a program.

Assistant Principal Tim Dignan came to view the presentations, and said the students will likely remember the projects.

“The more hands-on we give our kids, the more a standard-based curriculum sticks with them,” Dignan said. “Let’s face it, how many projects do you remember from high school?”

Board member Rutz-Robbins said she was fascinated by what the students came up with.

“You never know where the next best idea will come from,” she said.

The winning projects will be announced in a recognition ceremony on April 17 at USC. The first-place team will get to spend a week at the Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island. Second-place winners will go on a four-day study expedition to Edison’s Big Creek Hydroelectric facility in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and teachers with the top five classrooms will be awarded cash prizes for classroom supplies or professional development.

Maggie Avants is the education editor for SWRNN. Reach her at maggie.avants@swrnn.com. Follow SWRNNedu on Twitter!

Tags: Assistant Principal Tim Dignan, Carrie Burdick-Rutz, Conservation of Ocean Resources, Disposal of Electronic Waste, Disposal of Household Hazardous Waste, Edison, Edison Challenge, Edison International, Electrical Generation through Kinetic Energy, Electrical Generation through Waterpower, environment-saving measures, great oak high school, Keith Hill, Maggie Avants, Ryan Rigali, SWRNN, Temecula, Temecula Mayor Jeff Comerchero, Temecula Recycling, Temecula school board member Kristi Rutz-Robbins, temecula valley unified school district, University of Southern California’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, water conservation

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Education, Environment, Local News, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.