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Students Experience Professional Critiquing
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Dr. Andrew Hsu, Mark Henry and Jesse Kharbanda.
Photo by Jay Thompson |
(posted Mar 25 )
It is possible for the team finalists at Ben Davis High School to be future
leaders in renewable energy by developing emerging technologies
such as fuel cells and electric cars as a standard commodity.
Two teams, each compromised of five students, gave their final presentations
before three panelists in the field, Dr. Andrew Hsu of the Richard Lugar
Center for Renewable Energy, Mark Henry, Rolls Royce project engineer, and Jesse Kharbanda, Hoosier Environmental Council executive director. The three panelists offered advice to improve the
teams' presentations and cautioned against giving out information that
can be easily critiqued.
Associate Principal Kathleen Carter said the presentation is part of a
new program called problem based learning that allows the students to take
ownership for learning as they develop the solution to a posed problem.
The teacher is no longer the purveyor of all knowledge. She said the program
is increasing student attendance. Three hundred students in the integrated
Chemistry and Physics class were given the problem of developing alternative
fuels due to the skyrocketing price of gasoline.
The two final teams gave competitive presentations to push hydrogen
or electricity as the best alternative fuel for gasoline.
The panelists asked in-depth questions and punched holes in some of the
flawed data so the students would learn to give detailed and
accurate information.
Dr. Hsu cautioned the students' assertions that hydrogen is the
most abundant element on Earth. He agreed with the amount, but noted it
is not easily accessible since it is in the ocean as water. He said it
would take more energy to get the hydrogen out of the water, but these
limitations of today can be tomorrow's breakthroughs. He said the gas turbine
was developed in the 1930s, and the naysayers predicted it would never
be commercialized because the engine size would be greater than the aircraft.
However, the limitations were worked through and it is now a standard component
on every commercial jet.
Andrew Howard's team touted electric cars for their zero emissions,
but Hsu asked the students to think deeper about how electricity is made
in Indiana.
Henry cautioned Howard about using the Hindenburg as an example highlighting
that hydrogen is an explosive fuel. He said using examples are good attention
getters, but noted hydrogen did not cause the Hindenburg
to explode.
Henry said the Hindenburg's fabric covering had an aluminum component that
attracted the spark that ignited the ship.
Henry told the students to expect naysayers and to use the them as motivation
to break through the "it can't be done" barriers.
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