2010 Electricity Education Tour

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.

2 2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report

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.

3 2010 Electricity Education Tour Summary Report

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