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Blue Energy Talks Midland Green |
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Midland sophomores took part in a wind workshop with Midland alumnus Mathias Craig '96 and a crew from blueEnergy, installers of community-supported wind turbines and water filtration systems in Nicaragua. In two days, students learned how to build a small wind turbine (adapted from a Hugh Piggott design) from the raw materials of hand-carved blades, powerful magnets, copper coils, and a rotor assembly. Andreas Karelas from blueEnergy did a beautiful write-up of the Midland wind workshop during Experiential Week in their e-newsletter. Click here to read his article, and check out the link to some of Jamie Seborer's '96 best photos of the workshop! |
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Changing the Story: Making Renewable Energy Central To Learning |
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We are thrilled to announce that Midland's work is featured in the National Association of Independent Schools' Independent School Magazine (Spring 2012). Please read the article linked to below, co-authored by Lise Goddard, Josh Hahn, and Paul Chapman. The article, "Changing the Story: Making Renewable Energy Central to Learning" opens with a call to action to build our renewable energy infrastructure alongside our students using technology that exists today, while putting the lessons directly into our classrooms. Midland School and Hotchkiss School are leading this charge. Midland's homegrown approach makes our students the builders, one 3-kW array at a time, incrementally and always moving towards grid neutrality at a rate of 3% per year. Hotchkiss addresses the gap between high student performance on tests and lack of hands-on experience in the garden and in working to meet basic needs. Hotchkiss has recently begun a farm program and is building a state-of-the-art biomass heating facility, in which the supply chain from forest to fuel to ash will be transparent to the students. Green School leader, author, and advocate Paul Chapman, writes a sidebar addressing the larger movement afoot in schools across the country, concluding, "Not only will our students benefit from their education in green schools, our independent schools collectively will set an example for the rest of the nation to follow." Midland is a small school with big ideas. Being recognized on the local, state, and national stage indicates that the Midland educational model works.
Click here to read the article.
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Regional Green Schools Alliance Conference |
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 Photo by Marie-Helene SamsonOn Saturday, January 21st, Communications Director Karen Readey and students India Salter '13, Omavi Quadir '14 and Talei Cody '15 went to the Fourth Annual Regional Green Schools Alliance Conference held at Besant Hill School in Ojai. This is a conference that continues to inspire fresh perspectives, vision, connections and relationship. Tod Cossairt, Director of Sustainability at Besant Hill, who organized the conference said, "Each year we seem to develop a richer and stronger understanding for the sustainability commitments and challenges of the schools in our region. We worked around a theme this year of “Inspiration and Action Through Collaboration:” a celebration for those first steps we all make toward right action in our lives. Inspiration from others and collaboration with others is a key ingredient to making those important first steps toward right action in an informed and conscientious way."
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Midland School's Solar Success Story |
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Midland School has been installing PV arrays with our 10th graders every year for almost a decade. We hope you are captivated by the can-do spirit from Midland School, a solar success story that can serve as an inspiration and model to others.
Below are links to 4 documents created by Lise Goddard, Director of Environmental Programs - one which contains the story entitled, "Transitioning to Renewable Energy - A Working Model from Secondary Education," two photo collages - one of our 10th graders' installation this past month and one of our installations over the past eight years, and finally, a juxtaposition of graphs – our annual incremental solar production against the backdrop of the relentless Keeling Curve.
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Renewable Energy Update |
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We are back at the start of the Midland's Spring term, having completed a wonderful experiential week, which I write to share with you.
It was our best 10th grade week focused on renewable energy yet. At the outset, rainy weather delayed our camping trip by a day, which we spent in Santa Barbara visiting MarBorg and the Natural History Museum, but it all turned out well, and we had a good two-night backpack on Midland's property. Mathias Craig (Midland, '96) brought his crew from blueEnergy to put on a wind workshop on Monday and Tuesday March 28-29, and it was outstanding. A great education, a great reunion for Mathias and Midland, a great hands-on experience for the kids, and a convergence of Midland's past with its present and future. Years before there was electricity here, there was a windmill pumping water at the Sahm well in front of Main House. Our 10th graders carved wind turbine blades from boards (quite impressively!), and assembled a wind generator from copper coils and powerful magnets.
The solar installation was awesome, and it's already complete, signed off on, and turned on! The county inspector came on Tuesday April 5, and let us flip the switch on, so now a bit over 20% of Midland's electricity needs are met with solar installations installed over the past 7 years by 10th graders. Yay, us! You'll see an impeccable straight line across the top of both arrays as seen from the soccer field. Phil Hasseljian and the crew nailed the geometry. Gary Gordon of Santa Ynez Valley Solar did another great job with the students, who were great, and the 10th grade faculty is the dream team. I realized this year for the first time that if I were pulled from the installation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, it would get done by the faculty who have all taken this on as something we all own. We've achieved institutional momentum on this project, and I'm thrilled.
We also visited the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant visitor center.
My data sets, which show what our arrays have produced every month since Spring 2005 show a powerful trend - the curves indicating daily solar production (or percent of campus met by solar power) increase each year by a measurable amount! It's not just a class project, it's something that will pay for itself and allow us to achieve energy self-reliance over the years. At 3% per year, it will take a generation to achieve grid neutrality, but we'll have something more important than clean energy; we'll have a generation of Midland students who "get" it.
We thank Barry (Midland '41) and Jean Schuyler for their vision and generosity in Midland's renewable energy program. This Fall, we will apply for an EE Ford grant to expand this project over the next several years. The thing that Head of School Will Graham is most pleased about is the concept of, and the achieving of INSTITUTIONAL MOMENTUM. This is right where we want to be.
- Lise Goddard, Director of Environmental Programs
Click here to view a slideshow of the solar installation, and click here to view a slideshow of the wind energy activities. See the Santa Ynez Valley News article on the solar installation.
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Midland Oak Restoration |
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Every class participated in planting native valley oaks during the Saturday meeting periods this winter. The 9th, 10th and 11th graders planted saplings from Midland acorns grown in small 18" pots in staked tree tubes in the riparian area between the creek and Figueroa Mountain Road past the syncline well pump house. The 12th graders planted larger saplings from Greg Donovan, a friend of Midland, who operates a native nursery in Midland's garden. These saplings, donated to Midland by Tim Tibbits '67, were planted near the fenced horse pasture at the barn and along the edge of the soccer field.
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10-10-10 Global Work Party |
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During the October 10th assembly before work period, Midland celebrated 350.org's Global Work Party and Day of Climate Awareness. The Midland community gathered for a photo taken of the entire school in front of the solar arrays by the library. The Midland photo was sent to the 350.org website.
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Students Attend Talk by Gretel Ehrlich |
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On Thursday September 30, all English 9 and Marine Biology students attended a talk at UCSB by author Gretel Ehrlich on her new book In the Empire of Ice. This talk supports Cory Cramer's exploration of sense of place writing with his freshmen and Marine Biology's study of climate change. From the UCSB Arts and Lectures website: " For a National Geographic-supported expedition, writer and Santa Barbara native Gretel Ehrlich, winner of the 2010 Henry David Thoreau Prize for nature writing, circumnavigated the Arctic Circle to document the indigenous cultures inhabiting its starkly beautiful landscapes, as advancing climate change threatens traditional ways of life. In her new book, In the Empire of Ice, and in this illustrated presentation, she tells the story of her journey to explore the 'ecology of culture' that is so intricately interwoven with land, rock, river, sea, and ice." |
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