Should we use wood for energy?: A high school education program

Responding to a request from high school teachers in Santa Rosa County, FL, a team from the University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation worked with teachers to develop an interdisciplinary educational program on woody biomass. Northwestern Florida is the site of several woody biomass facilities, and teachers realized this is a potential source of jobs for their students that they were not addressing. The 18 activities can be used in biology, environmental science, economics, and current issues classes in grades 10-12. The program helps students explore their community’s potential to use woody biomass to generate power while better understanding the environmental, economic, and societal implications and consequences of this proposed action. The program is a rich opportunity to explore sustainability, to practice critical thinking skills, to use technology, and to consider this issue from a systems perspective. Whether using woody biomass for power is a good idea depends on local perceptions and understanding, wood supply and cost, nearby forest ownership and management, and available alternative energy resources. Introducing students to these issues and building connections between them is an important component of preparing an informed citizenry that is able to work on complex, scientific issues.

The development of the program began with two teacher meetings with the team to discuss a potential outline, critique draft activities, and understand the teachers’ constraints and interests. Using this real, local issue to bring technology into the classroom and practice critical-thinking skills were important benefits of the program from the administrators’ perspective. Teachers wanted engaging activities that would address state standards and be accomplished in a class period. Since teachers from several classes were interested in the project, they encouraged us to develop activities for different classes (i.e., biology, environmental science, economics) that could be used in different combinations or in isolation.

An expert review of the material was conducted to confirm that simplified concepts were still accurate. A critique from the UF School of Education offered strategies for adding assessment and extension components. The activities are linked to state standards and include a variety of teaching strategies: web-quests, citizen survey, role play, economic analysis, critical review of conflicting news articles, science laboratory, and group presentations.

A teacher workshop introduced the activities to teachers and provided background information and resources. They committed to pilot test activities with a student pre/post quiz, including an essay. Three teachers used the materials in four different courses with 152 students in 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grades. The evaluation suggests that the program led to a significant increase in knowledge for all students (n = 95, p < 0.01), and for each class (remedial biology, economics, and A.P. environmental science). The essays suggest that students could accurately articulate the advantages and disadvantages of using wood and the factors communities should consider, but were less able to convey the issue in the context of sustainability. Indeed, teachers admit that they were unable to use the activities that covered this information due to a lack of time. The classes that received a greater number of the activities had higher scores than the classes who had less time for instruction. Teachers mentioned that students enjoyed working on information about their own community and appreciated the varied instructional styles employed in the module.

Based on these results, the activities were shortened and the materials were revised, edited, converted to an attractive layout, and posted online for distribution: http://sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/ee/woodenergy/index.html. A teacher key to student worksheets is available on request.

This curriculum is a high-quality example of interdisciplinary, engaging, educational activities that link environment, economics and community concerns with a local, relevant, and important science-based issue.

Files

woodyBiomass_final.pdf

This is the curriculum. It is also available online. See previous description of the program.