The Cordova High School Science Club is committed to finding solutions to the high cost of energy in Cordova and rural Alaska. We work with community members, scientists, and industry to evaluate our resources and assess the effectiveness of different energy related technologies. Ideally Cordova’s energy needs can be met without the need for fossil fuels. As the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku explains, “Our future survival as a civilization depends on how effectively we are able to utilize energy from our environment”.
For the 2010 school year we will continue research on cold climate methane digesters, greenhouse technology, and a wind feasibility study for the Cordova Area. Information about each of these topics can be found under the projects section of this website, but the structure is similar. Students work with a qualified adult sponsor to collect and analyze data from a project that they helped put together. All projects at the Cordova Energy Center are presented at the Alaska State Science Fair in March.
The Science Club harvested the Greenhouse vegetables today and tested for flavor differences from effluent fertilization. Watch the video: Flavor Test
Cordova High school Science club students are competing in the state science fair competition at Begich Middle School in Anchorage today. Eight projects have been entered and the students are waiting around in the busy scene below to be judged. See more photos here.
CHS Science Club Presents in Juneau
Six students in the CHS Science Club just returned from Juneau, where they presented to the Denali commission and other grantees of the Emerging Energy grants, as well as the Alaska Power Association annual conference. The three videos that were part of their presentation are available for viewing on YouTube here as well as the Cordova Energy Center facebook page.
Here is the Cordova Biogas Project Presentation
Sixteen students from Cordova High School Science Club attended the Alaska Forum on the Environment as part of the Youth Track session. The students presented posters about projects that they are involved with and they participated in leadership workshops with other students from around Alaska. The Biogas Digester students gave a presentation to a packed room that was very well received. Two middle school students Casey Smyke, and Gabrielle Brown gave a presentation about Odiak Pond that was also well recieved.
Science Club Members
You need to submit a research plan for your project – here is a link to the digital version.
Google Docs lets us work collaboratively on the same document over the internet. We will be using it to create the poster and presentation for the Alaska Forum on the Environment in February.
1. go to docs.cordovaenergycenter.org
2. enter your username and password for cordovaenergycenter.org to sign in.
3. select the file called “biogas poster”
If you cannot see the file, search it in the search bar at the top of the page and hit “search cordovaenergycenter.org Docs”
Reply and give us a better description of exactly what question you are looking at -
Sophia – Resistance of shark skin
Brian – making a gassifier
Craig – Small Scale Biogas digester
Chris / Karl – Using effluent as a fertilizer for food crops.
Shannon – lillies?
Jessie – Wind turbine q
Eli – Wind turbine Q
James – Making a Plastic to oil machine
Keegan I – Plastic to oil
Biogas – Group -
Heat content of biogas?
Pressurizing biogas?
Cleaning Biogas
Running an engine on Biogas.
Using biogas to – re – heat our system
Heat exchanger to convert heat.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827854.000-cold-climates-no-bar-to-biogas-production.html
LAUREL McFADDEN struck a match and held it up to a nozzle on a giant tank. A small blue flame flickered into life, indicating that the mixture of mud, ground-up kitchen scraps and water inside the tank was generating methane.
On Wednesday the 25th of November, Three science club students, Mr. Low, and Clay Koplin finished planting the seeds for an experiment meant to test the effectiveness of the effluent as an organic fertilizer. Five varieties of lillies, carrots, radishes, lettuce, and parsley were planted in a greenhouse setup within the Cordova Energy Center under grow lights. The students plan to let the seeds germinate and then begin adding effluent to half of the samples. Ideally we will determine how the effluent affects the growth rate of plants when all other conditions are kept constant. Updates as to our progress will be forthcoming.
Students at a small high school in Alaska are giving new meaning to the “new energy” mantra coined by onetime Gov. Sarah Palin. But instead of looking to extract oil and gas reserves, as pitched by Palin, scientists in the Last Frontier are pioneering advances in an alternate method of gas collection — the creation and harvest of methane — and Cordova teenagers are leading the way.