Broome High School is learning to be green
This article originally appeared in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.
Links to the original article are no longer active.
EE G. HEALY
lee.healy@shj.com

Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 3:15 a.m.
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Learning is going green at Broome High School. A pilot green technologies course at the Spartanburg School District 3 high school is one of only five in the state focused on preparing students for future careers in alternative energy.

The pilot GreenSTEM course combines science, technology, engineering and mathematics with hands-on activities using wind energy, solar power and fuel cells. The new course is also being offered in Beaufort County School District, Lexington District One s Technology Center and Anderson District One and District Two Career and Technology Center. The pilot initiative in all five districts is being funded by federal technical and career education funds.

Students demonstrated a lesson for guests Tuesday morning after a brief presentation on the program by State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. District administrators, community leaders and local legislators also participated in the event.

Rex called the course curriculum a "glimpse into the future," not just for Broome students, but for the state, the nation and the world.

"The course that is going to be provided here at Broome High School is going to give these young people and other generations of young people after them an opportunity to have some hands-on experience with projects that are looking at wind power, solar, fuel cells and many other of the renewable resources we know we need to get much more serious about, not only in South Carolina but in our country," Rex said.

The course is produced by ETG/Marcraft, a Washington-based developer, publisher and manufacturer of career and technical training curriculum and lab equipment for schools across the world. The 14 students in the class are using six Marcraft training panels to produce electricity with wind turbines. Students will soon begin a unit on solar energy, then complete the year with a study of fuel cells.

"It doesn t teach the kids just how to generate electricity, but what do you do with it? What can you do with it?" explained Marcraft General Manager Chad Thomason.

New curriculum and materials will be provided to the school for two more levels of the course, staggered over the next two years. The initial cost, paid from federal funding, is about $50,000 per course.

During a demonstration, students used a drill to simulate wind, then logged the number of volts produced. Students said they like the hands-on aspect of the course, and the fact that it s preparing them for the future.

"This is going to be creating a bunch of jobs," said junior Jaime Carter. "Getting out of college doing this, you ll be guaranteed a job."

Thomason estimated 37 million new jobs will be created in "green collar" fields by 2030. For that reason, educators hope with proper funding the green technology courses can be expanded to schools high schools and secondary schools across the state.
Published: June 10, 2013, Monday
The Borneo Post Online

KUCHING: Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) is proud to be the first education institution in the state to offer a subject on Renewable Energy.

Through its subsidiary International College of Advanced Technology Sarawak (iCATS), the subject will be part of the engineering courses such as Diploma in Mechanical, Diploma in Electronic, and Diploma in Mechatronic and Higher National Diploma in Electrical/Electronic.

This subject is believed to draw good response from the public as workforce in this field will be highly in demand especially in the development of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

As part of the preparation for the new subject for the engineering school of iCATS, PPKS held intensive training for lecturers and tutors of School of Engineering on Green & Renewable Energy Training recently at its newly completed Green Technology Lab.

The trainer is an expert in the subject, Charles J Brook, who is also the vice president of Marcraft of the US. Marcraft Educational Technologies Group has been producing electronics, computers, IT and mobile electronics training programmes that excel in the classroom environment for over 30 years in more than 50 countries around the globe.

Since 1984, Brooks has been involved in education for 29 years with four years spent on Green Technology. According to him, Sarawak has the supremacy and potential of using renewable energy with its tropical rainforest climate.

In order to attract people especially students and youngsters to cultivate a passion for green environment, Brook suggested creating general awareness and training them with technical ability to conserve renewable energy.

The training objective is to expose and equip the lecturers and tutors with theoretical and practical studies for the subject. The training has covered the areas of Solar PV technology programme, generating clean electrons technology programme and wind turbine technology programme.

Also covered were sustainable conservation technology programme, fuel cell technology programme, environment monitoring technology programme, hydro power technology programme, biofuel technology programme, smart grid technology programme, energy auditing technology programme, green home test platform applying photovoltaic power generation and USN, smart grid green home network application platform, platform for LED basic test and LED application test and test equipment for smart lighting using LED.

The training was attended by Dr Leo Sing Lim, Fabian Halley Pata, Amirul Sait, Mohd Syafiq Salman, Tony Empurai, Mohd Faisal Mahsen, Arisita Duwi Sapik, Mahmoud Izzeddin, Dayang Syahenaz, Sharinah Baharin, Nazreen Junaidi, Martin John Madden, Bong Voon Pai and Siti Syafinah.

With a vision to be a leader for innovation technical training and education, PPKS strives to produce well trained and capable workforce by offering academic and training programmes which are practical and skill-based in nature, with full technical competency in all professional areas.

Log on to its website www.ppks.edu.my or www.icats.edu.my for more information. Interested individuals may download the application form and submit it to PPKS/iCATS at Tabuan Jaya from Monday to Friday during office hours (8am to 5pm). For enquiries, call 082-364198.