About a dozen high school students from around Alaska spent a week in the Northwest Arctic this summer learning about renewable energy, and they know a lot more about technology than most adults.
The students are part of Teaching Through Technology, or T3, a program that engages students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, through problem-based learning focused on real-world issues facing Alaska communities.
Among the tools they use is the Raspberry Pi, a small, inexpensive computer. Layla Workman, an incoming sophomore originally from Grayling who now lives in North Pole, explained how it works.
"Basically, Raspberry Pi is a little green board, like, it is an input and output. It's a lot of electronics. So it has little information on it to tell it what to do," Workman said.
The program began at the University of Alaska Fairbanks about six years ago with help from a National Science Foundation grant. It's a small part of the federally funded Upward Bound program, which helps underserved students continue their education.
George Reising, a former high school teacher who now works full time as a lead instructor for the program, said that engaging students in technology makes them more likely to succeed in school.
"So if we give them some cool technology skills, like Raspberry Pis and programming, drones, energy curriculum and soldering, and all sorts of cool tech tools, and give them a chance to really connect with the community, they can do really powerful things," Reising said. "They're more likely to finish high school, they're more likely to go on to college or any form of postsecondary education."
The program is designed for high school students, but Reising said it reaches younger and older students too, from middle schoolers getting their first introduction to college students hired as mentors.
This summer, student groups traveled to four places around the state.
"We've got a strand of students in Juneau doing climate research on the ice field. We've got a group of students in Cordova and Valdez looking at mariculture and ocean science, and we've got a group of students in Denali looking at, like, seismology and geology," he said.
This was the first year a T3 group visited Kotzebue. Students explored renewable energy, looking at wind turbines and solar panels, then flew to Noatak to tour the site of a future solar farm.
For Jeremy Thatcher, a senior, touring Kotzebue Electric Association's power plant was a highlight.
"We walked around and saw all the, like, generators and the other relays they had. It was like, 'Whoa, these can make power,'" Thatcher said.
After learning about Kotzebue's renewable energy projects, Thatcher said, he was eager to return to his hometown of Bethel and explore how renewables could work there.
"I don't know if we could have any other sources of power. And if we could, I'd be really happy to help study if we get more power with solar or if we even get more energy efficient," he said.
Although the students were in the Northwest Arctic for a week, the program runs year-round. Small groups, called pods, meet after school in each participating community to work on science and technology projects. Thatcher said that through the program, he volunteered at public radio station KYUK in Bethel, where he learned sound editing and interviewed elders. The program also helped him get his drone pilot license, he said.
Bryan Jones, another student, also learned to fly drones through T3. Jones, who is from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta community of Quinhagak, helped map the Nunalleq archaeological site from the air using a special camera. He said the camera can pick up differences in vegetation, such as brighter green or darker grass, that people can't see, which can help researchers find sod houses his ancestors may have used centuries ago.
"We're looking for more sod houses that didn't get found," Jones said.
The after-school program isn't in Kotzebue yet, but Reising said organizers hope to expand to more Northwest Arctic communities.
"My hope is that next school year, we'll have a group of students here in the region that want to lean into this kind of learning and experience. I would love to have students from Kotzebue or the borough come to our summer program next year," he said.
More information is available at t3alliance.org.
