ETCA Raises Money for the D.C. Trip

I, once again, apologize for not posting in a few weeks. With final grades being due at both schools and then the fundraising activities that we have done, there hasn't been a lot of idle time to sit and type! Also, I taught an Energy Based class for Lindsey's Roger's Explorers program using ETCA materials last Monday and Tuesday! Whew! Anyway, I am so glad to announce that ALL STUDENT FEES ARE PAID! We have had several donations from "Friends of the Academy"! I would like to take a few minutes to thank these people: Nation's Medicines, Jim Hadley at Majestic Yachts, Mike and Wanda Hatcher, Larry & Sheila Bryant, Rollin Pyles, Bob Johnston with AIKCU, Mason Dyer with AIKCU, Michael Azzara with Siemens, Dr. Phil Aaron, The Office of County Judge Executive Ann Melton, Adair County School Board, Gary Cox with AIKCU, Ellen Zornes with Adair County Substance Abuse Coalition, Leo and Donna Kislan, and the miscellaneous donors that attended our car wash! There is still money coming in, and that money will be used to take the students to eat somewhere nice, buy their lunch on Saturday and/or Sunday, help those who have limited spending money get a souvenir, etc.
We are having a preparation meeting this week sometime, and then we will be leaving about midnight on Thursday the 24th! I am driving and LWC van with 12 high school students and my 6 year-old, Connor....so start praying for me NOW!
I am currently teaching high school math for the Upward Bound program at Lindsey starting today through July 2nd. So I will try to get a few more posts done during this time because there are lots of activities that I still need to share with you!

Talk to you soon!
Heather

NEED Youth Awards Ceremony in Frankfort, KY

First, I want to apologize for such a late posting of this AWESOME event regarding the ETCA! The late posting has nothing to do with my lack of excitement, but I have had strep throat all weekend and have pretty much been useless. OK, enough excuses. I spent most of the day today contacting the Senator's office and scheduling a tour of the Capitol, trying to get a tour of the White House, filling out forms that were due yesterday to ensure our registration, and finally brainstorming on how in the world we are going to raise about $4000 by June 4th! I have faith that the students will lead a few good fundraisers and I hope to get some community and school district donations to help with the trip expense.

While we were at Frankfort, the First Lady, Jane Brashear, wanted to talk specifically with the ETCA students! She invited us to the Governor's mansion after she has some panels installed on the mansion itself! I knew she meant business, when a guy in a black suit with an earpiece on asked me for one of my business cards so that contact could be made by the First Lady! Wow!

Now that we have reached the Frankfort goal, our next big event for the year is a field trip to Cooper Station Coal Plant in Somerset, and then on to Laurel Ridge Landfill where the gases from trash (methane) is burned to generate electricity. So the students will experience electricity generation from a renewable and non-renewable standpoint. This trip is planned for May 26th, so be looking out for photos and comments regarding this trip! Meanwhile, fundraising will continue and the focus on Washington will become greater and greater!

I am so proud of our students! I can't wait to grow with them as we attend the National NEED ceremony as a team of people striving to make a difference in our world.

Signing out...Heather

East Kentucky Power Representative Speaks to ETCA Members

Nick Comer, a representative of East Kentucky Power (EKP) spoke to ETCA members at both Adair and Russell County High Schools last Friday, May 7th. He talked in depth about electricity generation and how electricity gets to our homes. One topic that he spent a significant amount of time on the topic of a renewable energy program in which EKP is a partner with University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. There are about 20 farmers in the state of Kentucky that are growing 5 acres each of a native Kentucky grass called switchgrass. Switchgrass has about 70% of the BTU rating as coal. They are studying the harvesting, pelletizing, conveying, and burning of this grass in their boilers. They are investigating issues such as any residues left in the boiler due to the switchgrass, conveying the pellets, percentages of switchgrass to be added in with the coal, etc. It was a very interesting presentation. Mr. Comer spoke to my sophomores last year as well. This time last year, they were just receiving the switchgrass in bales, much like hay. This year, the pellets have been made! What progress! It was very interesting to me to hear the presentation this year and compare it to last year's speech! The students really enjoyed it! They also did well on their quizzes yesterday!

Lake Cumberland Technology Center Starts Education in Solar

Yesterday, the students in the Electrical Circuits Lab II began learning how to connect solar panels in series and parallel. Students will investigate the difference in wiring the entire 24-panel array in series to get maximum voltage versus wiring two sections of 12 panels in parallel to increase amperage. Lyndsey Ayers and Brad Stephens are both ETCA members and are enrolled in this class. They are both pictured in this slideshow!

RCHS Energy Technology Career Academy Beta Class Goes to the Roof!

RCHS Sophomore ETCA Beta Class get to go to the roof! After much pleading, I was allowed to take the students up on the roof to show them the size and assembly of the solar array helping to power their school.

SunAir Systems - The Installer

I added one more link for your convenience! It is the link to SunAir Systems, the company that was contracted to install the solar arrays at both Adair and Russell County High Schools. Dave Merrill, the owner and installer, was a pleasure to work with and was willing to teach me as we went! I learned so much from him! Thank you, Dave! I would recommend SunAir to anyone interested in installing an array!

RCHS is Online!!

Good Morning!
I just checked, and RCHS is online so that we can view the kWh produced by this system anytime. Copy and paste this link into you address bar to view! So far, this array has generated 215 kWh for the school. I know that is not an enormous amount of electricity, but it is 215 kWh that Russell County School District does not have to pay for! It is only April, too! Can't wait to see what these systems do in the summer!

http://www.solrenview.com/cgi-bin/CGIhandler.cgi?&sort=pvi_IDs&cond=site_ID=338

The title of the page shows LWC Energy Technology Career Academy, but it will be changed soon to "Russell County High".

I will also put this link under "Favorite Links" on the blog home page.

Have a great day!
Heather