TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – There’s still room for Indiana high school environmental science and agriculture teachers to participate in a free Sustainable Energy Summer Institute July 15-20 at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

This workshop is provided through Rose-Hulman’s Portal Resource for Indiana Science and Mathematics (PRISM) program. All costs associated with the summer institute are being picked up by Rose-Hulman graduates Becky and Frank Levinson.

Participating teachers must be planning to teach units on sustainable or alternative energies in the future.

The intensive “boot camp” experience will combine classroom and laboratory professional development on the Rose-Hulman campus, with vocational experiences through visits to energy production facilities and other projects featuring emerging alternative energies.

Rose-Hulman faculty members Andy Mech, emeriti professor of mechanical engineering, and Robert Bunch, professor of physics and optical engineering, will cover the following topics: U.S. power grid, energy conservation, solar and wind energy, coal-fired power plants and natural gas combined-cycle power plants.

Then, those classroom lessons will be reinforced in field visits to Duke Energy’s power plant in Cayuga, Ind., Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s power plant in West Terre Haute, Ind., the Indianapolis International Airport’s solar farm, and wind energy farms in Benton County.

During the course of the six-day workshop, teachers will develop standards-based, practical and comprehensive lessons to help their students learn about sustainable energies. Teachers also will receive a kit of materials for lab activities, an Apple iPad, and an account on Moodle learning management system for their upcoming classes.

Teachers can register online at www.rose-prism.org. Create an account by clicking on the link in the main menu on the upper left-hand side of the webpage. Next, sign in to the system. Then click on “Event Registration.” In the drop down list below Event Registration, select “Sustainable Energy Experience 2018.”  Scroll down to the lower part of the page, complete and submit the online application. 

Since late 2002, the PRISM program has provided interactive digital learning tools and professional development workshops for Indiana teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas.