Teacher ‘recharges’ at Colorado conference

A Moran teacher recently went on a trip that opened the door for new opportunities. Steven Smith, a science teacher of Marmaton Valley High School, attended a week-long special training event known as the REcharge Academy at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. last July.
“We had the opportunity to hear lectures from some of the leading experts in renewable energy,” Smith said about his experience. “We also had opportunities to visit some of the Vistas plants, which is a wind turbine building plant where they build the turbines.”
Smith was one of several others on a scholarship to participate in this training seminar, which featured not only teachers, but professors, entrepreneurs and others involved with this field of science. This conference was sponsored by REcharge Academy and KidWind.
One of the speakers who stood out to Smith was the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Senior Engineer Otto Vangeet. According to Smith, Vangeet spoke about solar off-grid living and its possible impact in the future.
“He made a comment about how most schools in the U.S. could become energy neutral,” Smith said. “A lot of schools across the nation could become zero energy or energy neutral by utilizing solar as their energy source.”
Smith saw several scientists in action while visiting NREL’s testing facility. He found it interesting when he was given a presentation of ideas that were not released to the public yet.
The largest focus from REcharge Academy was the operation of wind turbines and how they function. He saw extra details that turbines provide behind the scenes.
“The amount of information, especially when it came to wind turbines, you’d learn a little bit about how it all works and how it ties to the U.S. grid system that we have,” Smith said. “We learned about how much it costs and it’s eye-opening right there. It’s expensive, but it can also pay off in the long run.”
Attendees of the REcharge Academy participated in several labs from being offshore or near a wind turbine as a simulation. Smith said he also learned about how solar application works and knows how to install it. 
Smith teaches chemistry, physics, earth, space anatomy and life science at MVHS and said he plans to use some things learned from the academy. In particular, he has multiple ideas for lab activities in the classroom.
“Its goal was to bring awareness not only to me as a teacher, but also how I can teach it to my kids,” Smith said. “I felt like I got a lot out of that. From understanding on how we have to work with grids and renewable energy and how it has to be accounted for.”