Agriculture
and science teachers across Illinois last
week explored in-school biodiesel production as a new teaching tool offered by
the Waste Management and Research Center (WMRC), one of the state’s scientific
surveys.
Teachers,
county Farm Bureau leaders, and others attended a workshop hosted by Pontiac Township High
School’s agriculture
and science programs.
Last spring,
students in ag, automotive, and ecology classes processed used cooking oil from
the school cafeteria and a local restaurant into biodiesel using a reactor
borrowed from WMRC.
“It
(the biodiesel project) encourages students to think differently about fuel,”
said Timothy Lindsey, head of pollution prevention at WMRC.
WMRC
started the bio-diesel project with one school in 2005 and later went to two
more schools.
Lindsey said
he was surprised when 32 schools volunteered to host a biodiesel reactor this
school year. He hopes to be able to work with 10 schools between February and
early June.
Interest
is so strong in Southern
Illinois’ Randolph County that a delegation attended last week’s event. Sparta High
School agriculture teacher, Mehgan Farley, and chemistry-physics teacher, Barry
Banks, traveled to Pontiac with county Farm Bureau directors Charles Schupbach
and Rich Tanner; county Farm Bureau manager, Ryan Ford; and Dan Rieckenberg,
Gateway FS petroleum manager.
“We’re
here on a fact-finding mission,” Schupbach said.
The county Farm Bureau board has discussed the project with Gateway FS, the
teachers, and school administrators.
“I’m
really excited about bringing the science and ag students together,” Farley
said.
“I
think the mixture of ag and chemistry students would be interesting. They’d
have something to learn from each other,” Banks added.
Pontiac senior Danny Zehr,
18, said his school’s biodiesel brought classroom lessons to life: “Just
hearing it, you don’t understand. Once you see it, you realize you can actually
power vehicles.”
“It’s a
good way to get a class involved in a project and help the community, too,”
said Kevin Cassidy, a 17-year-old senior.
Ag teachers
and education supporters interested in learning more about small-scale
biodiesel production and the WMRC’s education unit may contact Doug Bennett,
WMRC energy resource scientist, at 217-333-8947 or e-mail him at dbennett@wmrc.uiuc.edu. – Kay Shipman
