developing-an-energy-literacy-curriculum-for-incoming-freshmen-at-baylor-university-lessons-learned

AC 2010-851: DEVELOPING AN ENERGY LITERACY CURRICULUM FORINCOMING FRESHMEN AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY: LESSONS LEARNED Kenneth Van Treuren, Baylor University Dr.. DEVELOPING AN ENERGY LITERACY

AC 2010-851: DEVELOPING AN ENERGY LITERACY CURRICULUM FOR

INCOMING FRESHMEN AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY: LESSONS LEARNED

Kenneth Van Treuren, Baylor University

Dr Van Treuren is a professor on the faculty in the Mechanical Engineering Department at

Baylor University He teaches the capstone Mechanical Engineering Laboratory course as well as courses in heat transfer, aerospace engineering, gas turbines, fluid mechanics, and wind power

His research interests include energy education and gas turbine heat transfer He can be contacted

at Kenneth_Van_Treuren@baylor.edu

Ian Gravagne, Baylor University

Dr Gravagne is an assistant professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department

at Baylor University He teaches the Engineering Design II (“senior design”) course, as well as

technical electives in solar energy, robotics and engineering mathematics His principal research

interests are the engineering applications of dynamic equations on time scales and energy

education He can be contacted at Ian_Gravagne@baylor.edu

© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010

DEVELOPING AN ENERGY LITERACY CURRICULUM

FOR INCOMING FRESHMEN AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY:

LESSONS LEARNED

Abstract

Understanding energy, where it comes from, and how it is used, has become increasingly

important and will continue to be so in the future As part of the Southern Association of

Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation effort at Baylor University, the authors proposed a

unique energy literacy class for incoming freshmen as an element of Baylor University’s

Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) The QEP called for the development of several Engaged

Learning Groups (ELG) for freshmen (from any major on campus) which met one semester hour

for four semesters The purpose of this particular ELG was to address the lack of energy

awareness on the part of students involved in all majors Entitled “Energy and Society,” the

course was also part of the residential learning communities on campus It revolved around the

topic of energy and its associated societal, political, environmental and economic dimensions

Students who attended the entire course, four semesters, were able to substitute this course for one

in their major The first semester was an introduction to energy concepts such as work, power

and conservation of energy The second semester dealt with energy production (conventional

and alternative/renewable) and usage in society The third semester looked in more detail at

issues raised by the students themselves and led them through a process to develop a research

proposal in an energy related area The last semester was dedicated to the research project

proposed by the students Much was learned from the first offering of this course The paper

examines the structure of the course, its assessment, lessons learned, and changes proposed for the

second offering of this course sequence

Importance of Energy Education

It is evident that energy and its use have become increasingly important to the United States and

the world Shortages in traditional hydrocarbon fuels are being forecast and there is more talk

about renewable energy sources While energy is very important, as a presidential debate topic

not much was said about energy in the last election In fact, only 10 minutes of the final 90

minute presidential debate on October 15, 2008 was devoted to outlining energy policy1 From

listening to the debates, it was evident that both candidates have studied the energy challenges

facing the nation, however, each candidate needed to think through the impact and cost of their

policies President Obama has described several key issues in energy and the environment that

he has pledged to work towards in his administration Called the “New Energy for America”

plan, it consists of the following2

1) Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten

years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future

2) Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela

combined

3) Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon on the road

by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America

4) Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent

by 2025

5) Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80

percent by 2050

President Obama wants to make the U S a leader on climate change and energy The

disconnect comes when one looks at what it will take to achieve these goals outlined above

Today’s economic direction points to these goals as being overly optimistic To achieve these

goals will take massive amounts of capital and national resolve at a time when the economic

stimulus seems to be focused on Wall Street and the banking industry, health care reform, and

the military conflict in Afghanistan It is clear that an industrialized society takes energy for

granted3-7 However, just under the surface lies a great need for people to be informed about

energy, everyone from politicians who govern our energy industry to the average consumer8

A survey conducted by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation

(NEETF) finds that people are often bewildered, or worse yet, may choose to ignore energy and

environmental information because it is deemed “too complex” to understand8 Certainly, we

should expect college graduates to be able to ask the right questions and then evaluate the

answers they receive In the area of energy usage, Americans are clearly not informed about

energy According to the NEETF survey, only 12 % of Americans correctly answered seven or

more questions on a basic energy knowledge test9 Questions about trends in electrical energy

generation, gas mileage for cars, and which sector of the economy uses the most energy were

often answered incorrectly Ironically, however, the survey finds that people often overestimate

their energy knowledge Clearly, this is an inconsistency that must be remedied through

intensified educational efforts

Future generations will have to ask tough questions regarding energy9, 10 and then have the

knowledge base with which to make wise energy decisions The authors are advocating a

concept termed energy literacy and are proposing to address a national need by developing

energy literate students across all disciplines on the Baylor campus But how is energy education

best accomplished?

The Energy and Society Engaged Learning Group

The concept of the Engaged Learning Group (ELG) is the novel result of a process tied to

Baylor University’s re-accreditation under the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

(SACS)11, 12 The present accreditation guidelines require every SACS school to submit a

Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Baylor’s plan consists of two components, the ELG structure,

aimed at freshman and sophomores, and the Undergraduate Research and Scholarly

Achievement (URSA) concept aimed primarily at juniors and seniors The goals of the ELGs are

to increase student-faculty contact, emphasize active learning, facilitate cooperative learning, and

increase the number of undergraduate students engaging in research The ELGs were

competitively selected from faculty proposals with three being chosen for this first offering The

titles were Film and Global Culture, Hispanic Families in Transition, and, the subject of this

For the ELGs, the students initially begin as freshmen and take one semester hour per semester

for four semesters If students complete the required number of semesters, they will receive

credit for a course in their major (typically a laboratory science, in the case of the Energy and

Society ELG) The purpose of the Energy and Society ELG is to give Baylor University students

a foundation upon which to build an informed understanding of complex energy issues With

understanding comes the ability to begin answering the questions confronting society

Specifically, the four learning objectives are:

1) To develop scientific energy literacy;

2) To closely examine the production and consumption of energy in both developed and

developing countries;

3) To examine the social, political, environmental and ethical problems of an energy-dependent

civilization

4) Understand, hypothesize, propose and execute a research project in the theme, “The campus

as an energy-efficiency and alternative-energy laboratory.”

The four semesters for Energy and Society ELG followed the learning objectives:

This semester began by connecting energy production and consumption with societal and

environmental effects As a foundation, students learned basic unit conversions, calculations for

energy values, and the concepts of energy conservation (i.e the first law of thermodynamics) and

efficiency This semester contained an additional seminar feature which addressed the topics for

transition from high school to college Students wrote a report about an aspect of energy usage,

production, etc that interested them

Energy Production

This semester exposed students to energy conversion from fossil fuel, nuclear, solar, thermal,

photovoltaic, fuel cell, hydro, alternative fuel, and wind sources Students explored how energy

is used in sectors such as transportation, housing/HVAC, electronics, agriculture, and industry

Students also wrote and researched an energy-related scientific hypothesis

In this semester, stewardship and worldview were the threads that were woven throughout the

topics concerning energy, environment and society The students were asked to further research

topics significant energy issues with the thought that these topics might contribute to their

research project Assessment included a 20 minute presentation to the class on their energy

related topic with time to answer questions Each student then wrote a formal research proposal

based on the hypotheses stated in their presentation Students with similar topics were placed in

teams for the final research project

This semester led student research teams to investigate a thesis/hypothesis that was developed

throughout the previous three seminars The desire for these projects was to examine the Baylor

University campus as an energy laboratory Students researched topics that could be of

significant impact to energy consumption/production and energy economics on campus and in

the community The research theme supported an exciting and independent activity Students

self-selected research areas, with aspects of proposal writing, speaking and presenting, and

independent research all tied together in the projects The projects researched by the ELG

students are listed below:

1.) Wind power site survey Two students worked with personnel at the Waco Region 12

Educational Services Center on Highway 6 to site a small wind turbine They invited a team

from West Texas A&M University to assist in the erection of a tower with a wind

anemometer, in order to log wind speeds and directions Dealing with community and city

organizations proved a valuable experience The wind survey was not accomplished and is

still being coordinated This information from the wind survey is needed in order to

eventually place the turbine and predict its performance

2.) Rooftop gardens Two students constructed small sample roof surfaces on which to test the

ability of various green plantings to lower building heating loads in the summer Difficulties

with instrumentation and construction/placing of the test sheds took longer than anticipated

3.) Adaptive lighting Two students installed motion-activated lighting in restrooms and

classrooms in the Rogers building, and compared energy-usage results against classrooms

and restrooms without motion-activated lights They wanted to know where it was

appropriate to use sensor technology and whether it worked as advertised

4.) Engines and Propulsion A team investigated the “well-to-wheel” efficiency of using

ethanol for transportation vs hydrogen fuel cell technology They worked with personnel at a

local technical college to use an engine dynamometer Data was also taken on a hydrogen

fuel cell

5.) Solar Photovoltaics Another team installed several types of photovoltaic collectors on the

engineering building roof and carefully monitored their energy output The students wanted

to know whether one particular type of collector has the substantial cost-benefit advantage

that its manufacturers claimed and to get a sense of how much solar energy can be harvested

at this location in a given month

Value Added Survey

One of the assessment instruments used with the ELG was a survey developed by the National

Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF)8 This survey attempted to assess

the students’ knowledge of environmental issues Originally conducted successive years from

1995 to 2001, this survey showed an increase in perception on the part of the survey subjects

concerning energy and environmental issues (64% to 75%) over this time period The survey

consisted of a list of 10 questions on general energy topics The 10 NEETF questions were the

first questions asked in the 20 question Value Added Survey administered to the ELG students

The next 10 questions were related to general topics in the energy field, like efficiencies and

even typical units The test was administered on the first day of the first semester and then again

on the last day of the third semester It was administered on the last day of the third semester as

some of the students did not continue to the fourth semester This forth semester was not needed

for some students to receive their academic credit Twenty seven students took the survey the

first time and fifteen students took the survey in the third semester The results of the surveys

Table 1 lists the results of the survey by question As can be seen by the table, 16 of the

questions showed some improvement, some by a large margin Table 2 shows the average

number of questions correct by section According to the NEETF report, a score of 5.0 or above

on the quiz indicates that respondents have “A lot” of knowledge about energy issues As can be

seen from the results, the average for the ELG students was above 5.0 for both the pre and post

assessment This was not surprising since the students volunteered for this course because of

their interest in energy issues The students showed a 14.3% increase on the NEETF questions

after completing the three semester ELG sequence For the second 10 questions, an initial score

of 2.7 indicates a lack of a basic knowledge concerning energy issues The students show an

improvement of 37% however, the improvement of only one correct question after completing

three semesters shows that basic energy knowledge might still be lacking An overall score of

50% on the entire survey might be considered a modest success at the completion of three

semesters; however, there is still room for improvement

Table 1: Results of Value Added Survey listed by question (27 students – Pre, 15 students –Post)

Correct

Post % Correct

% change

19 % airflow extracted through erratic o 15 37 80

20 Country with largest reserves of coal 4 40 980

Table 2: Number of Questions Correct by Section

Questions 1-10 Questions 11-20 Total

Table 3 shows what NEETF considers an Energy Report Card On a national level, only 12% of

American adults score 70% or higher on this survey The results for the ELG on the first 10

questions showed that the students’ scores were above the national average for both the Pre and

Post survey For the Pre survey, 26 % of the students had an acceptable score compared with

47% with acceptable scores for the Post survey Again, this showed that the students had an

above average knowledge of energy issues prior to entering the class and that over the three

semesters more students achieved this “passing” level

Table 3: Energy Report Card

Grade (# correct)

Pre

27 students

15 students

% National

%

Conclusions and Long Term Goals

A complete cycle of four ELG semesters have been completed Overall, the class was a success

according to student comments Unfortunately, the numbers in the ELG decreased from 27

initially to 12 in the fourth semester for several reasons Some students decided to leave Baylor

after the first semester or the first year because of cost Baylor is a private university and cost

can become an issue Second, some students were not willing to do the work required to be

successful, such as writing essays and even attending the class regularly Baylor University

emphasizes classroom attendance and has an attendance policy requiring students to attend 75%

of the classes or they will fail a course It could be that the students did not take this class

seriously because it only met once a week Third, some students did not require the final

semester to receive academic credit for the class and, thus, did not participate in the fourth and

final semester Since this was the first offering of the ELG, much was learned and much is still

to be learned concerning the administration of such a course The course is seen as a very

positive step in beginning to address the problem of Energy Literacy The first offering of the

Energy ELG took 27 incoming freshman from across the campus, housed them together,

sponsored co- and extra-curricular activities, built community and engagement with faculty, and

kept the group (faculty and students) together for 2 years while studying an interdisciplinary

academic subject The opportunity exists to improve, as the first ELG concluded in spring 2009

and a second round of the Energy and Society ELG was selected by Baylor University’s

administration to start in the fall of 2009 The second ELG would conclude in spring 2011,

giving a complete and thorough assessment-improvement cycle If successful, this novel learning

structure would be adaptable to almost any residential campus

The authors learned many things from the first offering of the ELG For a one semester hour,

team-taught course, this was very time intensive The nature of the topic coupled with the

expectation to build community with extra-curricular activities was not thoroughly anticipated by

the authors at the beginning of the course The authors also found that planning these

extra-curricular activities was not a skill strength they possessed To improve in this area, a graduate

student from student services was employed with great success This individual, who was

pursuing a career working with college students, was full of energy and ideas, just the type of

individual that was well suited to the task of planning extra-curricular activities These activities

included social dinners, picnics, and trips to sports activities Couple these activities with the

students living together in a dorm situation and it is easy to see how the goal of community

development was met successfully

Other areas that were difficult for the authors were field trips to energy facilities and bringing in

guest speakers Energy facilities, such as power plants, were not open to tours This is the

reality of the world in which we are living after 9/11 In its place, the ELG made use of local

environmental organizations that were interested in renewable energy and energy conservation

For guest speakers, speakers were mainly found on the Baylor campus that had ties to energy

issues Speakers from off campus either had schedule or financial issues with coming to Baylor

to engage these students

For the second cycle of this ELG, a small amount of funding will be required for field trips, guest

speakers, catering for social events, and to pay for a graduate student worker The size of the

ELG will be limited to approximately 25 students, similar to the size for the first offering

Normally ELGs are populated with approximately 50 students However – even accounting for

normal attrition – a 50 student initial population is likely to overwhelm the faculty capabilities

during the 4th-semester laboratory research phase The original ELG proposal was ambitious

both in its curricular and extra-curricular scope however, a new paradigm is proposed with the

second cycle of the ELG, a “just-in-time” approach to learning

Just-in-time delivery is unusual in engineering education (for good reasons), but seems

appropriate to the present educational task In essence, students will begin with directed readings

that concentrate on objective three, examining the social, political, environmental and ethical

problems of an energy-dependent civilization The social issues in objective three are familiar to

the students These students are naturally motivated by their concern for the environment, or

their knowledge of the current geopolitical landscape, or the ties between energy and business

Many good, readable texts exist on subjects like peak oil3,14 , Christian positions on the

stewardship of resources15-17, the future role of alternative energies4,5,18, 19, and the politics of

energy9,10,20 And, of course, there is the morning newspaper!

It will not be long, however, before certain subjects become simply intractable without some

grounding in the science of energy Thus, at certain points, one to three class periods will be

used to learn about a particular technical aspect of energy; for example, how is alternating

current (A.C.) electrical power generated and transmitted? What is the relationship between the

many units of energy and power? How does a combustion engine actually work? These

just-in-time modules will support objectives two and three, closely examining the production and

consumption of energy in both developed and developing countries and examining the social,

political, environmental and ethical problems of an energy-dependent civilization This

improved ELG will also boast a healthy complement of hands-on laboratory experiences that

were not available to the initial students, some of which are made possible by an NSF CCLI

grant, including:

≠ A computerized hydrogen fuel cell (also in use for one of the ES1 research projects)

≠ A multi-stage reconfigurable solar thermal collector system

≠ A 2 kW solar photovoltaic system with a grid-tie inverter and associated equipment

≠ A Heating/Air-Conditioning/Ventilation (HVAC) demonstrator

The research theme is a unique aspect of the ELG for the undergraduates at such an early stage in

their career This will be enhanced in the second offering of the Energy and Society ELG To

support objective four, to understand, hypothesize, propose and execute a research project in the

theme, “The campus as an energy-efficiency and alternative-energy laboratory,” will be woven

throughout the ELG Its four components – understand, hypothesize, propose and execute – will

correspond to the four ELG semesters At the end of semester 1, students will write about an

energy-themed topic that is relevant to the Baylor or Waco communities, doing “paper” research

to back it up At the end of semester 2, they will defend a hypothesis relating their theme topic to

some aspect of energy usage, production, public education, etc Concluding semester 3, teams

will form to write formal proposals to investigate the most viable hypotheses A $10,000 budget

has been set aside to seed the team projects, with the proposed research occurring in the 4th

semester Students, we are sure, will be quite creative here These activities not only reinforce

student learning, but may also provide a relevant and useful product that could result in reducing

campus energy usage, fulfill a useful and needed public service and provide experience with

which students can assess and direct their own energy resource decisions in the future The

proposed four semester syllabus is enclosed as an appendix

One likely side effect of the proposed just-in-time approach: students will read and write more

than in the previous ELG This will come at some expense of the technical material However,

reading and writing more is a positive change As mentioned earlier, the context of energy

science is what makes it this course extremely interesting for the students Context will help the

students understand energy better, and retain more of what they learn And perhaps just as

importantly, readings, papers, and discussions punctuated by just-in-time technical modules

should help retain students in the ELG over two years

In the long run, energy and sustainability will increase in importance Many researchers and

authors feel that world energy usage is not only unsustainable, but that industrial economies will

experience continuing volatility as non-renewable resources dwindle Solutions must come not

only from technical innovation, but also through changes in business practices, legislation, and

personal choices Individuals in all walks of life will be affected by the changing world energy

situation This project has the potential to elevate students’ comprehension of the complete

energy picture, and to give them tools that will remain relevant and useful throughout their lives

and careers

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation (NSF 07-543) and Baylor

University for their support of this work

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