Smells Like French Fries: New Haven Schools Explore Green Energy

If the French fry-scented biodiesel buses don’t draw attention to New Haven’s new alternative energy curriculum, the 60-foot wind turbine behind Endeavor Middle School probably will.

This spring, New Haven Community Schools will implement the next phase of its K-12 alternative energy curriculum, which includes the use of biodiesel fuel in its school buses and the construction of a wind turbine at its middle school.

“We have been pursuing a K-12 alternative energy curriculum for about a year, and have been working with group called Energy Works Michigan on both the technical and financial aspects,” said Keith Wunderlich, New Haven Community Schools superintendent.

At the high school level, students are currently studying bio-fuels and this spring will begin producing biodiesel for use in the district’s school buses. Mixing grease from area restaurants and regular diesel fuel, students will create their own biodiesel, which, due to its components, will leave the air around the buses smelling somewhat like French fries as the fuel is burned.

“We’re at the beginning stages,” Wunderlich said of the bio-fuels program. “It will involve our auto and chemistry students and we’re hoping to include biology as well. We think we can get pretty deep into experimenting. We will have data to analyze and it can be a true 21st century learning opportunity right here at the high school.”

Meanwhile, middle school students will do their own experimentation and data analysis on wind power, with results derived from the school’s own wind turbine.

Construction on the turbine is slated to begin April 10 and the 60-foot tower is scheduled to arrive on April 24.

“(Drivers will) see this large wind turbine behind Endeavor Middle School, but what they won’t see are the kids working on the different aspects of wind power in their classes," Wunderlich said.

While the Endeavor turbine will be smaller than those used on wind farms across the state, Wunderlich said it will generate electricity and provide significant data for students to analyze.

“The students are going to be able to go online and see the data being produced from our wind turbine and compare it to one of the ones on Lake Michigan perhaps,” Wunderlich said. “They’ll be able to compare weather and wind conditions and placement … we’re very interested in the data it’s going to produce.”

The cost of the biodiesel equipment, wind turbine and solar panels also in use at the elementary level–just under $40,000–is shared between Energy Works Michigan and New Haven.

“Because we are small, we knew we can’t go head-to-head with big districts in every single category, so we picked one where we thought we could do better,” Wunderlich said. “We can expose every middle school kid to wind energy, every single 10th grader to alternative fuels ... it’s really relevant and very cutting edge–something that we could do more in depth than big districts.”

When all aspects of the alternative energy curriculum are fully implemented next fall, all core subject areas will address alternative energy in some form, making the study of alternative energy truly cross-curricular for all grade levels. 

"We're really looking at it as a K-12 curriculum, and thinking above and beyond other districts," Wunderlich said. "We're really very excited."