Sustainable Energy in Remote Locations and Extreme Environments - Part 2

UAF Bristol Bay Campus has been offering a Sustainable Energy Occupational Endorsement program. One of the difficulties of teaching sustainable energy is that it is a field that relies on rapidly developing technology, such as LED lighting or photovoltaic systems, and lecture materials become quickly outdated. A 2016‐2017 grant from the Alaska Space Grant Program (ASGP) allowed to update one of two main classes in this Occupational Endorsement program ‐ ENVI 220 Intro to Sustainable Energy. The project was very successful and, among other outcomes, resulted in connecting with a representative from NASA Ames who is involved in NASA’s Greenspace activities and who delivered a guest lecture in the ENVI 220 class in Fall 2016. In the current round of funding for year 2017‐2018, the project team seeks to revise the second of the two main classes in the Occupational Endorsement program – PHYS 102X Energy and Society. It is a 4credit STEM course related to NASA’s Greenspace program. One of the components of the course is a project in which some students deal with real‐life energy‐related issues in their communities. These projects include hands‐on activities as well as theoretical analysis. Similar to NASA’s challenges, these projects deal with remote locations and extreme environments. Specifically, the project team seeks funding to revise the PHYS 102X course to make the content current, establish NASA presence in the course, and distance‐deliver the updated class throughout Alaska in Spring 2018. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the development of STEM workforce in sustainable energy, which is an interdisciplinary field relevant to NASA.