In 2022, Upward Bound (UB) students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and from the University of Hawaii Maui College (UH-MC) participated in a high school summer program experience like no other – the One Ocean Summer Program. One Ocean was spearheaded by Upward Bound Directors Jana Wilkinson from UH-MC and Adam Low from the UAF. The One Ocean Summer Program utilized T3 Alliance project based learning framework to address mutual energy and climatic problems impacting their communities.
“Maui County and Alaska are especially vulnerable to the impact of environmental changes. These communities need to be resilient in ensuring that they are equipped to address, manage and adapt to environmental events and hazards. How can we build resilience and reduce the current and future negative impacts of environmental changes on our communities?”
The students spent half their time in Hawaii and half their time in Alaska and worked with community partners to understand local, but shared, energy and climate issues within a cultural context. They applied problem based learning and dove deep into their learning processes, clearly defined problems which they could address, and worked to develop prototypes for their solutions. The outcomes reverberated past the five weeks and was the catalyst for a new club.
Energy Club Background
One student team wanted to “optimize energy consumption within our microgrid communities without forcing our residents to compromise their daily lives.” Project Ohm Sweet Ohm was born. The team generated a series of possible solutions and identified two that could be merged into one for further exploration.
Communities would use “a physical device that could be preprogrammed to help manage energy consumption by shutting off unnecessary appliances throughout the day. The device would also be linked to software — Watts App — used to monitor average energy consumption in a household and load on a grid,” explained a team member.
Although the team fell short of building a prototype, they hope, “someday it can be made into an actual product that can help our society switch to a more sustainable, dependable and clean form of using energy.”
Energized Club
This hope fueled the creation of T3 Energy Club, a pilot program led by students to continue and expand upon the energy solutions developed by the students in the One Ocean summer program. The program includes veteran students from the One Ocean summer program and incorporates new students, including those attending Boise State University, who hosted the Energy Summit in November 2022.
Throughout the fall 2022-23 semester, coaches and community partners took the Alaska EdX Microgrid alongside the students to further their understanding of energy concepts and how they pertain to their microgrid communities. Students met each week to discuss content from the course, think study group, and also attended the in-person Energy Summit in Boise, Idaho.
Energy Summit
At the Boise Energy Summit, the students organized themselves into teams dedicated to solving some pressing energy issues facing their own communities and to expand their understanding of energy systems and technologies. Working together using T3 Alliance problem based learning framework, the students set goals and formed teams to work in areas including education, research, hands-on projects, community engagement and storytelling. T3 Alliance and community partners such as Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) are excited to support and follow the journey these students have begun.
