2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report Courtney Hughes BSc, BEd, MEd
Boreal Education Coordinator
Edmonton, Alberta
April 22 - 24, 2010
with support from
TM
2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report
Table of Contents I.
Overview
2
II. Program
3
III. Partnership and support
4
IV. Futures
5
Appendix A - Program participants
6
Appendix B - Detailed program
7
Appendix C – Testimonials
9
Appendix D – Participant Survey Results
10
1 2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report
I. Overview Inside Education’s 2010 Electricity Education Tour aimed to increase awareness and to provide Alberta’s teachers with a greater understanding of electricity in Alberta. Twenty-two teachers (Appendix A) from across the province, representing both French and English classrooms from grades one to twelve took part. Discussions, tours and activities were used to expose participants to multiple views on Alberta’s electricity production, transmission, use and conservation. Provincial, regional and local industries, organizations and government were represented in this program including, Government of Alberta, Alberta Electric System Operator, ATCO Electric, AltaLink and the Canadian Centre for Energy Information. Ensuring a multitude of perspectives was represented, the program was intended to give teachers a balanced picture of “Alberta’s Electricity Story”. Before getting out to experience things first hand, participants reviewed the basics of electricity and received an overview from Alberta Energy on the challenges and issues related to electricity in Alberta. With this background information setting the stage, it was on the bus to a tour of TransAlta’s Keephills generating facility and a bus tour of the adjacent mine area. This engaging tour provided teachers a rare glimpse at the inner workings of a coal-fired power plant and mine. Inside Education professional development programming strives to always keep in mind the needs of the teacher, even while ‘showing and telling’ so many detailed issues. As we continued to help teachers along the ‘electron path’ we held a discussion on Alberta’s important, complex transmission system from the people in charge – the Alberta Electric System Operator. To help with this, our tour took the opportunity to be the first teacher-group to tour ATCO’s new Energy Education Mobile. We also had an opportunity to discuss electrical safety at ATCO’s High Power Training centre where we learned just how much power really is flowing through those overhead lines. The traveling portion of our tour concluded with a discussion of personal action and conservation. Visiting Edmonton’s Belgravia Net-Zero house enabled teachers to see the sorts of conservation activities that they, and potentially their student can strive towards as we all investigate the means to lower our own carbon footprint. We understand that teachers are anxious to take advantage of the energy education opportunities available to them in Alberta. A workshop was held from both GreenLearning and Inside Education, walking teachers through some of the best, most relevant electicity education programs available to them and their colleagues within their school and school districts. We challenge the teachers to ‘spread the word’, and share the experience and opportunities beyond the walls of their own classroom. Ultimately it will be the thousands of Alberta young people who will benefit from their teacher’s dedication to learning about electricity in Alberta. Alberta educators often face logistical and financial challenges to accessing high quality professional development opportunities. The contacts, resources, and networking opportunities provided by Inside Education at no cost to educators are invaluable toward furthering young Albertan’s understanding of Alberta’s natural resource and energy sectors in Alberta’s youth.
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II. Program This three-day program held in Edmonton allowed the participants to follow the path of electricity through Alberta. This was accomplished through a progression of presentations and tours starting with the topic of electricity generation, followed by its transmission, use and conservation. During the program, participants were engaged in informative discussions with presenters and visited locations rarely seen by education professionals, thus enhancing their educational experience. A detailed program can be found in Appendix B, and Table 1 below provides a general program overview. Table 1: 2010 Electricity Education Tour Agenda
April 22
April 23
April 24
Welcome and Introduction Steve McIsaac, Inside Education
Electricity Transmission in Alberta - Overview Shan Bhattacharya, Alberta Electric System Operator
Electricity Education - Green Learning Kathy Worobec, GreenLearning
Electricity 101 Bob Rose, APEGGA
Energy, Generation and Climate - Overview Steve McIsaac, Inside Education
Resource Workshop Steve McIsaac, Inside Education
Electricity in Alberta – an Overview Kathryn Wood, Alberta Energy
Respecting Electricity Mark Davis and Al Houle, ATCO Electric
Coal-Thermal Power Generation Process – Tour KeepHills Facility Ralph Leriger, TransAlta
Energy Education Mobile - Tour Susan Belyea and Duncan Marks, ATCO EnergySense Electricity Choices – Net Zero Tour Peter Amerongen, Amerongen Habitat Studio & Workshop Ltd
Inside Education’s programs end on the final day with a discussion and demonstration on how to incorporate and apply the information learned during the education tour to the classroom. Ultimately the program aim was to help Alberta students, become more informed about the topic of electricity in the province, allowing them to become better consumers, stewards and citizens.
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III. Partnership & Support Participants were made aware of partner organizations throughout the program and specifically during: the introduction, in the participant package, and during closing discussions. In addition to the support of the expert presenters and hosts noted on the previous page, a special thank you goes to the following organizations for their financial support in making this program possible:
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IV. Futures The participants of the Electricity Education Tour were very pleased with the exposure, information and understanding they gained from taking part in this program on “Alberta’s Electricity Story”. Please refer to the comments and data summarized in Appendix C and D. Inside Education is proud of the success of our Education Tours and programs. In gauging the need for topical, pertinent and easily accessible natural resource and energy education programs and services in Alberta, we have identified a continuing desire in educators, partners and presenters to support programming that takes a deeper look at these topics. Inside Education will continue to offer programming in these areas to enable teachers to better provide relevant and current information to thousands of Alberta’s youth.
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Program
Particpants
Appendix A Sandy Adamson High Park School Stony Plain
Susan Allen WR Frose School Fawcett
David Bernier École Francophone Publique du Nord-Est de Calgary Calgary
Vanessa Bjorge St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School Spruce Grove
Barb Brilz Ecole Bishop Savaryn Catholic Elementary School Edmonton
Glenda Bron Calvin Christian School Coalhurst
Roger Chan Irvine School Irvine
Jesse Clarke Dr. Bernard Brosseau School Bonnyville
David Cook Bev Facey Community High Sherwood Park
Alison Gardner Oyen Public School Oyen
Jennifer Greer St. Joseph Catholic High School Grande Prairie
Shauna Hay Lake Bonavista School Calgary
Miriam Hick Mother Teresa School Sylvan Lake
Trish Hunter Balmoral Middle School Calgary
Marcy Johnston Ecole Broxton Park Spruce Grove
Claude Langlois École Bishop Pinkham School Calgary
Gary Meekins Oyen Public School Oyen
Jennifer Poon High Park Stony Plain
Diane Pysyk Vernon Barford Junior High Edmonton
Chris Sudyk Woodbridge Farms School Sherwood Park
Sharon Thiessen Killarney School Calgary
Nicole Tom Huete St. Josephs Catholic High School Grande Prairie
Cory Whalen Prairie River Jr. High School High Prairie
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Detailed
Program
Appendix B Thursday, April 22 Welcome/Introduction to Electricity Education Tour A meet and greet where all participants had the opportunity to meet one another and participate in an introduction to Inside Education and the Education Tour itself. Presenter: Steve McIsaac, Inside Education Electricity 101 Bob Rose, a retired professional engineer, having worked for ATCO and volunteering for APEGGA, presented about circuits, watts, volts, atoms, electrons and anything to do with electricity! Through a presentation and demonstration, teachers investigated the topic of electricity and were provided with information and experiments they took back to the classroom. Presenter: Bob Rose, APEGGA
Electricity in Alberta – an Overview This presentation was an overview of electricity and electric restructuring in Alberta. An overview on how markets work, how electricity price is set along with highlights of recent policy and ongoing initiatives including carbon capture and storage, greening energy, electricity transmission issues and others. Presenter: Kathryn Wood, Alberta Energy Coal-Thermal Power Generation Process A trip to Keephills Generating facility at Wabamun Lake showed what is involved in mining coal, how is coal used to generate electricity and how electricity is transmitted throughout the province. We explored the processes involved that make it so our lights come on when you flick the switch. In this session, TransAlta identified some of the technological challenges the industry face in responding to market and social interests. An introduction to carbon capture and storage, super-critical, and ‘clean coal’ technologies being developed at Keephills III was also addressed. Host: Ralph Leriger, TransAlta
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Friday, April 23 Electricity Transmission in Alberta - Overview We examined Alberta’s electric system from securing the energy source, to generation, transmission and distribution to users. Shan described some of the key challenges that his organization faces in ensuring that Alberta’s electricity needs are met, now and into the future.
Electricity Choices - Net Zero Tour With a combined presentation and tour, teachers investigated personal action approaches for conservation. Edmonton’s Belgravia NetZero House was featured as a case study and we were lead on a tour of the house and it’s energy saving features. Presenter: Peter Amerongen, Amerongen Habitat Studio & Workshop Ltd
Presenter: Shan Bhattacharya, Alberta Electric System Operator Energy, Generation and Climate 101 – An Overview
Saturday, April 24
An introduction and broad look at the various forms of Energy
Electricity Education - Green Learning
production in Alberta and the connection to climate.
Modeling activities in The Pembina Institute’s Greenlearning.ca
Presenter: Steve McIsaac, Inside Education
site, this session had participants learn about and compete activities and resources available to them from Green Learning to use
Tour the Energy Education Mobile
in the classroom.
Our group was one of the first to see this unique learning experience
Presenter: Kathy Worobec, GreenLearning
that will travel to Alberta schools and communities. This resource aligns with the Grade 4 Science and Social Studies curriculum and
Inside Education – Education Session & Summary Evaluation
is designed to encourage inquiry-based learning and critical think-
This session is devoted to showing the teachers what resources
ing. Students participate in fun interactive activities that combine
are available for the classroom to teach about electricity. This time
individual learning with group discussions.
also reviewed what they learned during the program and how to
Hosts: Susan Belyea and Duncan Marks, ATCO EnergySense
take this information and put things together in a format that could be used in their classrooms, schools and school districts. Presenters: Steve McIsaac, Inside Education
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Testimonials Appendix C “What a fantastic three days of P.D. you have linked so many gaps and misunderstandings I had about energy and electricity in a very efficient and effective manner. Due to having a limited background on science and electricity, I now feel that I will have more of appreciation for what we have as well as an increased passion for this topic that I can now share with my students. I can’t wait to get back to my classroom on Monday and tell them what I did and be able to share with them the whole electricity process. You made it come alive and it was just great. Overall, just thank you for such a great experience. I will only have good things to say about Inside Education.”
Alison Oyen (Gardner), Oyen Public School, Oyen
“You certainly have met and exceeded my expectations Knowing all the facts about the production, transportation and distribution of electricity will be very useful when discussing energy and electricity topics with my students and coworkers. Thank you so much for empowering teachers to do a better job in the classroom.”
Miriam Hick, Mother Teresa School, Sylvan Lake
“It was very informative learning about the new environmental controls being installed into the V3 coal plant. Of all the P.D. programs I’ve been on, this has by far been the most interesting and useful to my classroom.”
Jesse Clarke, Dr. Bernard Brosseau School, Bonnyville
“It is a wonderful informative program. Now, when I teach this topic, I have a much better knowledge of the generation of electricity, energy to conservation. This will make it easier to convey knowledge to the students.”
Gary Meekins, Oyen Public School, Oyen
“I have a new perspective on how electricity in Alberta works and I can’t wait to teach my students using real-life examples and hands-on learning beginning Monday morning.“
Vanessa Bjorge, St. Thomas Aquinas
Catholic High School, Spruce Grove
“As one of my students said, “I always wanted to know how we get electricity from coal.” I can now go back and share how coal is used in the production of electricity. What I learned will help me more clearly educate students about electricity.“
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Sharon Thiessen, Killarney School, Calgary
Participant
Survey Results
Appendix D I would recommend this experience to my colleagues. Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disgree
100%
This education experience increased my undersatanding of electricity... 100%
80%
60%
40%
Strongly Agree
20%
Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disgree
0% Conservation
Use
Transmission
Generation
How many students do you expect to share your experience with in the next year? 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 0-25
26-50
51-75
76-100
101-150
151-200
200+
10 2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report
Courtney Hughes BSc, BEd, MEd
Boreal Education Coordinator
2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report