Imagine owning a small farm and being able to power your whole operation using the waste your farm generates. Well, students at Daniel Boone High School are researching ways for farmers to do that.
However, the PA Utility Commission has proposed a regulation that would limit the amount of clean energy a private entity can produce to 110 percent of what they use each year. According to the DBHS Green Team, the proposed regulation would make converting to alternative energy sources unfeasible for smaller farms.
The DBHS Green Team had the opportunity to teach their parents, siblings and other members of the community about the 110% regulation at the Third Annual Parent’s STEAM Night Feb. 25. In addition, DBHS science students taught parents about forensics, biology, chemistry, physics and ecology through experiments and demonstrations, and they also discussed other environmental issues and solutions.
Student Green Team members Quintin Reed, 17, and Rachel Lau, 17, spoke to attendees about their objection to the proposed 110% regulation. They showed how the prototype biogas digester the Green Team created can help farmers – as long as the 110 percent regulation never goes into effect.
The prototype biogas digester produces methane and carbon dioxide from organic waste, such as cow manure, and farmers can burn the methane and carbon dioxide to provide electricity for their farms. Farms can become self-sustainable in terms of their energy consumption by using the manure that comes from farm animals to fill the biogas digester.
The biogas digester also produces a solid byproduct the farmers can use for animal bedding and a liquid byproduct that can be used as fertilizer.
“The fertilizer has no phosphorus or ammonia, so it’s safer for the crops, and [The animal bedding byproduct] helps the cows clean themselves by taking away the dirt from their hooves,” said Reed. According to Reed and Lau, one farmer they spoke to saved $37,000 per year by using the solid byproduct from his biogas digester as bedding for his animals instead of sawdust.
Since the Green Team is an extracurricular activity, members of the Green Team conduct their research in addition their normal school work. According to Green Team mentor and DBHS physics teacher Shannon Helzer, the work conducted by the Green Team keeps the students at school an extra five to six hours each week.
Helzer said the Green Team is open to any DBHS students who are in good academic standing, but the 10 members that comprise the Green Team are the “survivors” who were able to keep up with the high demands of their environmental research.
Since Dec. 2013, the Green Team has won $35,000 in prize money and has been the recipient of $70,000 in material donations. This year’s Green Team is also in the running to win an additional $30,000 from the Lexus Eco Air & Climate Challenge, which is the contest from which the team won the $35,000.
To commend the Green Team for winning the $25,000 national level prize from the Lexus Eco Air & Climate Challenge last year and for winning an additional $10,000 this year at the regional level, members of the National Guard presented trophies to the Green Team and Helzer at the Parent’s STEAM Night event.
After the trophy presentation, Helzer invited attendees to tour the Lori Kemp Memorial STEAM Courtyard and outdoor Green Classroom, which houses the Green Team’s greenhouse and hydroponic gardening system.
“We were able to acquire the greenhouse that you see in the courtyard, that’s a $40,000 greenhouse. It was donated to [DBHS] because the company that made it was so impressed with what [the Green Team] did last year. … That courtyard was built 100% by Daniel Boone students. … The Green Team lead that effort, and we had 40 or so students who signed up to participate. Nothing [in the courtyard] is taxpayer funded. All that you see out there is from the effort of these kids,” said Helzer.
Green Team member Amelia Fox helped to teach attendees about the hydroponic system in the greenhouse, which allows the Green Team to grow plants using much less space than traditional gardening. Fox said the hydroponic system has required some trial and error to get everything running smoothly, but they now have lettuce and tomato seedlings growing that they hope to use for salads in the DBHS cafeteria.
Helzer stressed the importance of trial and error in the research the Green Team conducts because it creates a learning opportunity. He said the Green Team ran into some trouble with their biogas digester when they discovered it was not airtight. Although they haven’t tried it yet, the Green Team can solve the problem by using a metal tank with copper pipes.
“We love it when we fail because it lets the students know that’s how it is in the real world,” said Helzer.