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Hernando Today

Gulf Coast Students Working With Power

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By LINNEA BROWN, Hernando Today

Published: February 6, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Students at Gulf Coast Academy of Science and Technology are learning everything they need to understand and apply the basic principals of electrical engineering.

Last Wednesday, officials at the county's charter school purchased equipment that will allow its 22 eighth-graders to create the mechanisms to generate, store and transmit electricity through hands-on science activities.

Created by Gulf Coast science teacher Shawn Walker, the project "Hands-On Program for Electricity" was made possible through a recent science and math improvement grant for nearly $5,000 from the Toshiba America Foundation in New York City.

The money will enable school officials to purchase 11 Lego-brand renewable energy kits. Students will also be working with hand-held generators, making batteries using pennies and constructing electrical cars, as well as using their knowledge of electricity to discuss potential roles for renewable energy sources, administrative director Nevin Siefert said.

"They'll be able to transmit electricity using a telegraph, and will learn simple circuits in the storage and control of electricity," he said. "Then as an offshoot to this, we'll be completing investigations into new, emerging technology such as hydrogen fuel cells, hydrothermal power and wind-generated power."

School officials spent several months last summer developing lab curriculum for the grant, and are currently working with the Florida Solar Energy Center on building solar cars, Siefert said.

Hernando County's only charter school, Gulf Coast, has 116 middle school students. With 10 full-time teachers, there are never more than 22 students per class.

In keeping with the hands-on, experimental focus of the school, students participate in a field activity once a week and complete "mini-courses" on science-based applications such as sea turtles and marine life. There is currently a waiting list for all three grade levels.

The Toshiba America Foundation is a nonprofit grant-making organization that has been supporting improvements in science and math education through its grants program since 1990.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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