Last week I had the opportunity to travel to New Jersey to accept an award that GM won for its work with none other than…Teach Green!
The New Jersey Technology Education Association (NJTEA) presented the award to GM Thursday night at an award ceremony with educators from all over New Jersey. Each year, the organization awards an individual, institution and/or government official who “made a notable impact through their virtuous support for students and/or educators in technology education…and have a proven track record of advocating the benefits of technological literacy for all students in New Jersey schools.” This year GM won the Impact Award for its work with Teach Green! Read the rest of this entry »
Out here in New Jersey, public schools were recently told to prepare for budget cuts across the state in every district. In the spirit of the sustainable design challenges and problem solving activities that we have been giving students all year, our current situation presented us a REAL problem to solve. Next year, we might have less money to buy new supplies, so it is important to conserve now. However, we want to continue giving students fresh design challenges that deal with sustainability and the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), as well as other 21st century skills such as innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration. Read the rest of this entry »
For the past couple of months we’ve been working hard on a project that uses the exciting technology and images of Google Earth to show how energy is used and produced all over the world. We call it the GM Google Earth Project.
More than 1,100 educators around the world are doing it.
On Earth Day, April 22, 2010, they are going paperless. These teachers have pledged that they will not make copies, hand out worksheets, give tests–at least, tests produced on paper–or do anything else that requires paper. Read the rest of this entry »
The technology to run a car on electricity already exists. In fact, the electric car has been around for more than 100 years. To see this technology first for myself I went down to Mr. Thomas Alva Edison's house in West Orange, NJ. Both of these cars were made by Detroit Electric.
Hi, I am Ron Grosinger, an alternative fuel educator at a high school in New Jersey.
Last spring, during a pilot after school club, we converted a gasoline-powered car into an electric vehicle. With the success of the club, we have expanded it to create two Alternative Fuel classes during the day. In one of these courses, I have partnered with another science teacher to create a class named The Science of Alternative Fuels where students learn the chemistry of how different fuels work. In this blog, I will post lessons and success stories from my classes. Read the rest of this entry »
“Maglev” is a term used to describe the levitation of an object using the repelling forces of magnets. If you have ever tried to force two magnets together with like poles facing one another, you have felt the repelling force.
To start off 2010, we are still working on our Solar Energy unit that I blogged about in my last post. In this post you saw examples of the circuits and housings for the solar panels that the students had designed and constructed. Now, those circuits are being integrated into everyday products in order to give use to portable wireless power. Read the rest of this entry »
In this video, we briefly explain biodynamic farming using aquaponic techniques and tour a classroom with various systems in place for hydroponic and aquaponic farming – both forms of sustainable and predominately organic biotechnologies.
On Wednesday, October 21, a group of 7th graders from our middle school and took a trip to downtown Detroit for the Business of Plugging In Conference Student Day. Between looking forward to learning about battery technology, how electric cars such as the Chevy Volt run and actually sitting in the car itself, our kids were buzzing with anticipation when we arrived! As a teacher, it’s great to see how engaged our students were at this event–they learned so much about the electrification of the automotive industry happening here in Michigan, they talked with the people working in the business and asked questions, and at the end of the day they came away from the event with a genuine interest and excitement about what they learned. The following are a few accounts of the day written by our students. Thank you again GM for inviting us to this wonderful event. We look forward to next year. Read the rest of this entry »
Hi there teachers. Before I give you this final post for the year with regards to classroom hydroponics, I want to say thank you for following my blog. I’ll keep working on stories and videos over the summer and hopefully you will join up with me again when I come back in the fall! Read the rest of this entry »
