Introduction
Near the end of the school year, while trying to get my class settled down, I was unexpectedly confronted by a man in running shorts and a T-shirt who approached me directly, derailing my previous intention of bringing order to the class. He asked if I was "in charge of the weather station on the roof." Figuring there was no way to answer in a way that he would turn and leave, I surrendered the truth and hoped for the best. The school announcements had commenced and some students were broadcasting the weather report and forecast. The class quieted down to hear the "news." "Yes," I replied, "I guess I am." He quickly said his name (Phil something), apologized for not having any business cards and informed me that he worked for a renewable energy company. He said they wanted to put a wind turbine on our campus, they were expecting a fight over the local height restrictions, and that if I would be so kind as to share our wind data with him, they would all be grateful.
Suddenly, I was not so concerned about the students being quiet for the morning announcements. I did not worry that they might run out in the hall and hurt each other. As it turned out, they were sitting at their desks doing their work as usual, and I was thinking, "serendipity."
I briefly told him of my plans to go to Yale to participate in a seminar on Renewable Energy and that his interests dovetailed beautifully with mine — i.e., to write a curriculum unit on renewable energy. It was then that I decided to focus on wind power.
We have a fair amount of wind and sunshine in our region, northern New Mexico. In addition, there is a strong energy industry to the south, national nuclear labs in Los Alamos and Albuquerque, and a governor who supports the utilization of our natural renewable resources — i.e., sun and wind. At our school, a weather-tracking station measures and reports the wind direction and force/speed 24 hours per day. There are also local renewable energy companies near by. One company in particular, Conergy (represented by Phil), approached me about sharing our school data on wind to support their efforts in erecting wind turbines in the area — in particular, on our school, Turquoise Trail Charter School (TTCS) campus.
My first thought upon hearing this proposal was to envision my students gathering and charting the data, building an understanding of their findings and presenting them in a convincing way to someone who cares. In other words, I pictured my students doing research and testifying before a county commission on reasons Conergy should be granted a variance on the local height restrictions to build a wind turbine. My vision expanded to seeing my students present their case in a more powerful way by speaking to the state legislature next winter.
For this vision to succeed, I need to have a group of students who are interested in and committed to learning about the challenges and benefits of wind energy. They also must have the resources and the leadership to bring their efforts to a rewarding conclusion.
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