Energy competition lights up 350 students

May 12, 2008

By Communications staff, Washington State University

Photos by Shelly Hanks and Robert Hubner, WSU Photo Services

At WSU’s inaugural high school energy competition on May 10, Bohler Gymnasium on the Pullman campus was literally buzzing with the ideas and enthusiasm of more than 350 high school students.

Focusing on the theme of Power Your Future, teams were asked to present ideas for sustainable living in one of four areas: technology; design, behavior or society/public policy.

Eighty-six teams from all parts of Washington state accepted the challenge and developed ideas that ranged from specific proposals to encourage more recycling in one high school to schematic designs for a new high school that utilizes green technology. One team proposed stackable greenhouses that would allow every community to “buy local,” another team designed a Lego-like car that could be reconfigured for different uses, eliminating the need for multiple cars.

Some teams came with fully-developed projects that were up and running (a school-wide challenge to lower CO2 emissions) and other teams came with impressive progress toward an elusive goal (using algae to sequester CO2 emissions during concrete production).

Microsoft inspired

“The whole thing is just amazing,” said Jeff Johnson, a business development manager for Microsoft, and a judge for the competition. “The ideas, energy and passionit’s just inspiring, frankly.”

At the end of the day, nearly $100,000 in prize money was handed out to individual teams and their schools.

The grand prize– and breakfast with Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day and president of the Bullitt Foundation– went to a three-person team from Lake Roosevelt High in Coulee Dam for their project, titled “Customizable Hydrogen Production.”

“This definitely has been a life-changing experience for me,” said Elizabeth Owen, 18, who spearheaded an effort to build a wind belt as part of her team’s submission. A wind belt, which captures the energy created by a wind-powered flutter or vibration, rather than the rotation of a turbine or windmill, is much more efficient and less expensive than current wind technology. Teammate Peter Rise built 60 solar panels and Catherine Kerns created a hydropower collection system.

The team also built a hydrogen fuel cell that powered a small motor.

Owen said she knew her team had created something special when the judges gathered around the models. At one point, she said, there were about nine judges WSU faculty members as well as industry expertsasking questions.

Talking with faculty members was her favorite part of the experience, she said. “I loved seeing their expressions when they found out about the wind belt,” she said. “They were these really brilliant people and I got to explain something to them that they didn’t know about.”

Owen was the only senior in the group, and prior to the competition college was a distant ideaperhaps to become an art teacher but not really a plan. Now, she said, all that has changed.

(The winning team “The Toxic Brewers)

Next year she hopes to attend WSU and would like to pursue a career in alternative energy technology.

Each member of the group received $5,000 in prize money and the school received another $5,000. Ralph Rise, a science teacher, and Lee Argent, an industrial arts teacher, were advisors on the project. The team was also assisted by Stephen Dent, a WSU graduate student in engineering who works with high school students as part of an NSF grant.

“We are going to use the money as seed money for our next project,” Ralph Rise said, adding that the group already has ideas about developing a solar powered dragster.

Concrete ideas

Another big winner at the competition was a three-person team from Bellingham High School. The students, all members of an AP chemistry course, took on the challenge of trying to sequester CO2 in concrete production using algae.

(Photo of the Bellingham High School team project)

For their efforts they were awarded first place in the technology division and also $1,000 scholarships by the College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences to attend WSU.

“It’s definitely a satisfying feeling,” said Dylan Albrecht, sitting at breakfast the next morning. Albrecht said he and his teammates, Calvin Atkins and Sam Lewis were inspired to attempt the project after their teacher, James Yoos, showed them an NPR story that said about 13 percent of CO2 emissions in the Seattle area is caused by concrete production.

“I’d never seen concrete as a problem until I heard that story,” Albrecht said. The team split up the component parts of the project, each becoming an expert in one area. They all agreed that getting the right turbidity and ph level of the algae gave them the most trouble.
In chemistry class, Lewis said, as long as you follow the correct procedure, your lab works out. In real life, he said, you don’t always get the results you are looking for.

Referring to the story about Thomas Edison discovering 85 ways not to make a light bulb before he got it right, Atkins said his group had discovered several ways not to make the algae they needed, but they weren’t giving up.

While they were pleased with their first place finish, they regretted not winning the grand prize.

“I wish we could have had breakfast with Denis Hayes,” he said.

Yoos, the group advisor, said watching his students present their project and defend it with the judges was an incredible experience. “I couldn’t imagine a prouder moment,” he said.

(One of eight teams from Wapato High School, near Yakima)

But then he thought of another. It was the moment one of his students said, “Now I understand the need to collaborate across the disciplines.”

Launching pad

As part of the Imagine Tomorrow event, students were also able to tour various labs at WSU and his students were able to talk with other scientists working on algae.

“The other aspect that was exceptional is that this was a launching pad for them,” he said. Now, he said, his students have met other scientists working on the same issues who are willing to help them continue their research. “They are just jazzed,” he said.

They weren’t the only ones who were jazzed.

British Petroleum encouraged

Les Okonek, an engineer with BP Cherry Point Refinery, was having a hard time getting to all of the projects he wanted to see and discuss. Just before the lunch break he was talking with a group of FFA students from Rosalia High School who had built a hydrogen engine from parts they’d cobbled together from old appliances and whatever they could find around the shop.

Cross-discipline collaboration was again a theme, as the group combined work in ag science, ag mechanics and ag sales to pull together their project. Their engine was burning hydrogen, they’d proven that, but they needed help getting to the next level.

“I’ll come back and talk with you guys later, because you are right on the mark here,” Okonek told the students.

(The Rosalia students earned second place in the technology

challenge.)

Okonek, a judge for the competition, said he was encouraged by what he was seeing. “When I see the minority students and the young ladies involved (in the competition), that is particularly exciting,” he said.

Leaving for lunch, he pointed toward a project that replaced diesel fuel in a school bus with a vegetable oil-based alternative fuel. The group from Camas High School showed that emissions could be reduced by as much as 82 percent.

“This is fascinating for a bunch of 14-year-olds to come up with this,” he said. “Why doesn’t BP come up with this, at least in the short term?”
“Diesel Secret Energy: Bus Biodiesel” earned third place in the design challenge.

Event co-chair Grant Norton, associate dean in the WSU College of Engineering and Architecture, said the event exceeded his wildest expectations. “The thing that made it a success was the phenomenal projects by the students,” he said.

Co-chair Jill Watz, director of Climate Change Initiative for Vulcan Inc., agreed. “I thought it went spectacularly,” she said. “They thought through their projects and came prepared.”

For more information on Imagine Tomorrow, click here.

For a complete list of prize winners, go to https://wsunews.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=12248&TypeID=1