LAC LA BICHE - Recently, a group of junior and senior high school students from JA Williams (JAWS) High School and École Plamondon were at Portage College learning about the energy, technology, and natural resource innovations and industries within the Lakeland region, but also how to build hydrogen fuel cell cars.
The Energy Innovation Day workshops and presentations took place throughout the day on April 9. They were organized by Inside Education, a group based in Edmonton and Calgary that does educational events on natural resources and the environment for students across the province.
During the presentations, students learned about reclamation of land to its original state, from representatives of 360 Reclamation, as well as strategies for reducing carbon emissions in the oilsands by Pathways Alliance. There were also speeches, including ones by instructors in the Portage College Power Engineering and environmental programs.
Between presentations, the youths put theory into practice and participated in informative activities. These included hands-on activities such as building hydrogen fuel cell cars, and a scavenger hunt where participants checked over a poster on the lookout for alternative fuels sources.
Using car kits that included a chassis and wheels, students set about making hydrogen fuel cell cars. There were hydrogen fuel cells in which water was injected into. After, the hydrogen fuel cells were connected to batteries. Electricity from the batteries separates hydrogen from oxygen, which powers the cars.
Kathryn Wagner, the programming director for Inside Education, Alberta’s largest environmental and natural resource education charity, said is it “incredibly important” for students to see what’s happening, and get hands-on opportunities to interact with technology and talk with experts in their fields. This, she says, gives them a view of what’s going on in the local energy landscape.
“We often hear about energy really broadly, but there’s so much going on at the local level, so we just love to get them interacting with energy in their community,” Wagner told Lakeland This Week.
Inside Education, Wagner continued, works with schools all across Alberta and has worked with schools in the northeastern Alberta, in Lac La Biche and Cold Lake. Besides visiting schools to do classroom programs and presentations, she explained, the organization also worked with teachers doing professional development and brought them on tours as well.
Wagner said these presentations and workshops that are held throughout the province are getting results and providing students with valuable knowledge to discuss with family at home or to consider as a future career, but also to be good stewards of the environment and natural resources. She added that the organization has been doing these types of programs for almost four decades.
“We do a lot of surveys of participants and collect feedback on their experiences and the impact that has on both the lives and learning of both teachers and students,” she said.
Ilana Music, a program coordinator with Inside Education who was at Portage College on Tuesday, said in addition to giving students an opportunity to learn about energy, technology, natural industries and innovations-as well as to explore potential career paths- the event also exposes them to different opinions regarding the energy and natural resources sectors.
“I know sometimes energy can be a really polarizing topic and a lot of people kind of more adopt the opinions of the people that are around them. So, this gives them an opportunity to learn for themselves and immerse themselves in the energy landscape,” Music said, adding that during the workshops, students also get to meet and talk with professionals within the industry and develop their own opinions.
