The Uganda Project Update

Good Evening Everyone!
Just wanted to give a quick update on The Uganda Project. The picture below shows three of the selected lights in a pitch black room! The slideshow at the end of the post shows more of the detailed work!

We have finally made a decision on the type of lights that will be used. They have been purchased and are now on their way! Mr. Jeff Selby, heard me doing a radio spot on the WAVE last week, and called to offer help. As it turns out, he used to light his Amish home with batteries! He had some awesome LED light with an approximate 120 degree viewing angle. He so generously donated them to this project; Lindsey Wilson College (who funds the Academy) purchased four more matching lights for a total of SEVEN!! All seven lights when connected will not draw over 2 amps!!! This means that the people of the village of Buliike can use the battery for over a week without having to charge it again!! (These are, of course, calculations, and have yet to be proven in a field test!). Special THANKS to Jeffries Hardware for helping us out with the PVC (which will be the structure of the light plant) and the wire and connectors. Also, a very special THANK you to Superior Battery for donating the deep cycle marine battery that will be used!
Next steps:
1. Gotta find an exporter that will do an "all inclusive" shipment. Due to the battery acid, special papers will need to be acquired and filled out, and a complete bill of materials must be prepared in a "special way". I have lots to learn about overseas shipments!
2. Once the lights are here, construct the structural part of the light plant using PVC pipe. We have the make the wiring harness and purchase a few switches so that this plant will be as simple as possible to operate.
3. TEST!! We need to figure out by testing how long the battery will keep the lights illuminated and exactly how long it will take the solar panel(s) to fully recharge the battery. This will be especially important for the life cycle of the battery itself.
4. Write instructions....using pictures and diagrams. Of course, our friend, Ronnie, can speak and read English; however, I would like to challenge the students to write assembly instructions for people who don't speak English. Isn't that what LEGO instructions are???

The fund raising efforts are going well! We are selling raffle tickets every day. We ordered 500 "The Uganda Project" wristbands today and will be selling those very soon. Proceeds from this particular fundraiser will go primarily to the water purification project, including the LifeStraw shipment (see my last post for more info on LifeStraw).

Wanna help? Comment on this post and let me know how you would like to contribute!

Where's Windy!

The Energy Technology Career Academy makes the local digital newspaper! Check out the article! Paste the link into your browser!

http://www.columbiamagazine.com/index.php?sid=42243

The Uganda Project

I am so excited to tell you about a project that the ETCA is taking on called "The Uganda Project"! We are reaching our arms around the globe to a small village in Uganda, Africa called Buliike. Let me start from the beginning...
After a Christmas play this past year, my dad introduced me to a man named Ronnald (Ronnie) Kayula and his wife Ronah and daughter Praise. I learned that he had graduated from Lindsey Wilson College with both Christian Ministries and Professional Counseling degrees and that he and his family were going back to Uganda on January 31st. I asked about electricity, and he said, "Oh no....it is much too expensive! We only have candle light." So my wheels began to turn. I remembered the solar panels that my Engineering class made last year. Could they possibly help light this village for the first time in history??? As I began explaining the solar panels to Ronnie, tears welled up in his eyes. Then I knew....I had to do something!
Soon after, Dr. Starr approved some funding for the project and the students and I have been investigating different lighting options, battery types, cart designs, etc. Then Ronnie and his family visited the Academy students at both Adair and Russell County high schools. I felt this was important because I wanted the students to feel vested in this project; and what better way to do this than to meet the people that would be using the light! During the visit, Ronnie and Ronah talked about life in Uganda and how HUGE this lighting project actually is.

They told us that there are people who have never seen artificial light in their entire life...that there are children that cannot go to school because they have to work during the day, and have no light to study by at night...that people die there daily due to HIV/AIDS, poverty, and war. The students could hardly believe that there are people that still live in these conditions. They immediately shared the desire to help! You see, Ronnie and his family could choose to stay here in the "lap of luxury" (the USA)...yet, they are choosing to go back to a poverty-stricken village in Africa in an attempt to bring hope to a hopeless people....

The Junior and Senior classes are working on the solar cart design. This cart will be mobile so that the people can move it from place to place if needed. The cart will house the battery as well as the lights. The wiring plan is yet to be determined because we haven't settled on the type of lights yet!
The Sophomore class wanted to help with the clean water issues. They will be building a solar purification system for their water. As a missionary explained last week, he watched people there wash themselves in a puddle, then someone else would come get water to drink from that same puddle. He also told us about a little girl who found an empty water bottle. She took off the cap and put her tongue into the cap in hopes of getting the last little drop of water. The students cannot test this system until we get some sun!!!

So, in the meantime, we are launching a "Go Green Basket" fundraiser. Students are donating items daily. Some of the items include: Compact Flourescent Light (CFL) bulbs, reusable water bottle, dish towels, rope caulk, water faucet aereators, and more! Tickets on the basket are $1/ea or 6 for $5. Students will be selling tickets starting on Monday, February 7th during lunch. Each student will also be selling tickets individually. All proceeds will go to The Uganda Project. Most of the funds will go toward the purchase of 200 LifeStraws! (www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw)

The company that makes these life-saving water purification straws, only sells the straws in $1000 bundles. This includes shipping to anywhere in the world directly from the factory in Asia. We are super excited about helping Uganda with our renewable energy technologies as well as with the LifeStraws!
Of course, if YOU want to help with The Uganda Project in any way, please contact me via email: spoonh@lindsey.edu.





Special Thanks and Special Mentions:
Lindsey Wilson College
Siemens Building Technologies
Jeffries Hardware
Superior Battery
Mr. Rollin McFarland, Lake Cumberland Technology Center
Kevin Spoon
Larry Bryant
Doug Keaton, Director of Career and Technolgy Education, The NEED Project
Terry Harvey

Be on the watch for another blog post soon regarding Windy!!

Dream BIG!!
Heather

LWC and UK join WIND forces to gather data for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

What an exciting project! LWC's Energy Technology Career Academy has joined forces with the University of Kentucky to collect some REAL WIND DATA for South-Central Kentucky! We're tired of everyone saying there's no wind in Kentucky (except for in the far eastern parts!). Maybe they're right, but we want the data to speak, not someone at a desk in Colorado!



Doug Keaton, NEED Project National Curriculum Specialist (sorry if this is the wrong title...I hardly ever guess right! but it's close) came down to bring us the anemometer personally! This was a great treat because he got to visit both my RCHS and ACHS Academy members and talk with them extensively about energy and the opportunities available to them! Doug is a barrel of fun and the students absolutely love him! He seems to reach students like no one else can...his real world experiences, his "this is how it is" personality, and his willingness to explain and converse with the students makes him a definite hit!! We are lucky to have Doug on our side, so to speak!

So, back to the anemometer!! We are going to name the anemometer "Windy"! One of the students came up with her name. It is very appropriate, don't you think? We hope to launch a "Where's Windy?" campaign in the local papers in both Adair and Russell counties, and of course this blog. I also hope to create a Facebook Fanpage so it's easy for people to socially network with ETCA. We will be moving the anemometer every 10-14 days, and sending the collected data to Frankfort, University of Kentucky, and it will be sent onto NREL. We have a map of the counties, and will be making sure we get a good disbursement of data across both counties. So, be on the lookout for Windy in and around Adair and Russell counties. There will be a banner posted in front of the anemometer, so hopefully it will be easy to spot!! Next location: Joy Arnold's house on HWY 768 past Gradyville!

Reduce!Recycle!Reuse!
Heather

ENJOY THE SLIDESHOW! CLICK ON IT TO SEE INDIVIDUAL PICTURES!

Snow! Snow! Snow!...has put a damper on some project progression

Hello Everyone! It has been a while since my last post; so, sorry about that! However, things have been really busy for the Energy Technology Career Academy! We have yet another project that I am so excited about! Recently, at a Christmas play, my dad (of all people) introduced me to an extraordinary man named Ronald. He is from Uganda. He is a LWC graduate and will be going back to Uganda on January 31st of this year. His family came over to the States to watch his graduation and literally did not believe that he received 3 meals a day until they saw it with their own eyes! Ronald and his family will be starting a ministry in Uganda (he received a Christian Ministries degree from LWC). As I was talking with Ronald, I asked him about electricity availability in Uganda and he quickly told me that they would have no electricity. All reading, studying, etc., must be done by fire. Well, if you know me by now, my wheels began turning! I remembered the two solar panels that my Intro to Engineering class made last year (the ones for under $100 that helped us win NEED National Rookie of the Year). Wouldn't it be awesome if LWC's Energy Academy supplied solar panels to an LWC graduate on the other side of the world? If we helped light a village in Uganda so that people may hear the Good News? So that children could go to school again because they could study at night by light and still work in the daylight hours? WOW!!! How powerful (no pun intended!)

I was supposed to pick up Ronald on Friday at lunch and bring him to ACHS to meet some of the Academy students, but SNOW happened! We will reschedule for later this coming week! I want the students to meet Ronald personally so that they have that deep connection that will help them realize the full potential of their skills...especially in third-world countries! Of course, I will have pictures to post later and will hopefully get some good press for the Academy as we pursue this wonderful journey to Uganda!
Stay Warm!!! Heather

ETCA Receives ARC Grant!

Wow! I am so excited to share with you all that the ETCA has received a $75,000 grant from the Appalachian Region Commission! This grant will focus on furthering the manufacturing of solar panels in Columbia, KY, and purchasing a biodiesel plant that will produce fuel for Columbia's garbage trucks! I am in the process now of requesting community members' participation in the new Columbia Community Energy Plan Leadership Team. Already receiving email responses...gotta go! More to follow...

The New Semester Brings Forth Engineers!

As ACHS has changed to a "trimester" schedule, things have been very different as far as my class schedule goes! I only have RCHS students until December, but have ACHS students until February. The classes are about ten minutes shorter than the RCHS classes. Several students from the Beta ETCA class are taking courses at the Lake Cumberland Technology Center. I actually have 6 of my 9 engineering students riding over to Russell County every day to take CNC Machine Tool and CAD!! This is awesome because the students are telling their friends what an awesome learning experience this hands-on education is! I hope to continue to send more and more Adair students to LCTC! Talk about differentiation! It's wonderful!

Okay, some of the pictures I want to share with you on this post are of ACHS students working on the Ultimate Can Opener Project, where students reverse-engineered existing can openers and then designed their own based on the functions and features of their "competitors" products. The students learned how to identify primary and secondary functions as well as features of all kinds of different products.

The next big project involved sippy cups...of all things! Students evaluated the spill-proof valve mechanisms from several different cup manufacturers. They did this for two groups, 1) Infant to Toddler and 2) The Big Kid Cup. Throughout the "Reverse Engineering" FordPAS module, students pretend to be engineering interns at a company called Gadget King. They had to present their designs using sketches and Power Point presentations to the CEO of Gadget King (which happened to be me;) The following slideshow captures some of the best moments of this project!

Students have just finished Fall Break and are in the midst of learning about the importance of operator instructions and assembly instructions. During this project, students build anything they want using Legos! They have to take apart their product and another team must reconstruct their EXACT product using instructions created by the team. We are ready to trade this week! Teams will be graded on how well the other team can assemble the product with the instructions that were provided. Should be interesting! I have digital pictures to make sure all features, colors, and views are exactly the same...so no cheating!!

Hope you enjoy this post!

Mrs. Spoon