2016 Geothermal Student Competition: Advancing Awareness of Geothermal Technologies Through Educational Challenges

Transcription

1 GRC Transactions, Vol. 41, Geothermal Student Competition: Advancing Awareness of Geothermal Technologies Through Educational Challenges Phyllis L. King and Tammie Borders Idaho National Laboratory Keywords Geothermal Design Challenge, geothermal, student competition, infographic, STEM ABSTRACT In spring 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office, in partnership with the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL), launched a competition for high school and university students to design an infographic illustrating the value and potential of geothermal energy. Visualizing science-based information in a way that is appealing and easy to understand is challenging; however, more than 100 teams from across the United States did just that - creating captivating infographics to tell the story of the future of geothermal energy. Teams required diverse skill sets including engineering, economics, graphics design and scientific communication, which facilitated team-based learning and drove innovation from the members' backgrounds. Throughout the contest, teams were provided expert mentors in graphics arts, geothermal and environmental science, and scientific communication. Vetted by a committee of engineers, energy experts, and creative professionals, the infographics drew great interest from geothermal and educational communities. This paper will provide details about the 2016 Geothermal Design Challenge, diverse demographics of the participants, outreach methodologies and metrics, and quantified impact the contest had on driving awareness of geothermal technologies and potential careers among the participants, the geothermal community, educational community and general public.

2 1. Introduction Getting lost in a sea of facts, equations, terminology, and jargon can be easy when trying to understand scientific communication, articles, or writings. Conveying the meaning of scientific data to the lay person might be difficult, but creating a visual representation of that data to tell a story can be even more challenging. How do teams of students go from knowing nothing-to-little about a scientific topic to understanding, communicating, and educating the public about the impacts of that particular subject? One idea is to put a challenge in front of the students. Challenge them to research a topic, dissect the findings, and illustrate the results to educate others about what they have learned. The 2016 Geothermal Design Challenge provided an opportunity for students to explore the future of geothermal energy in the form of a crowdsourcing contest. The contest incorporated Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM concepts with the added Art element, transforming the event to a STEAM challenge. The 2016 Geothermal Design Challenge was a competition that engaged high school and university students from around the nation to learn more about the heat beneath their feet by combining research and software technology to create an infographic, like the one shown in Figure 1, which told a compelling story about geothermal energy. Figure 1. Infographic example.

3 2. Opportunities The participants of the Challenge created infographics that emphasized the benefits of geothermal energy while combining scientific and artistic methods to present their stories. The central outcomes for the students participating in the 2016 Geothermal Design Challenge included: 1) The contest provided a mechanism for students to learn about geothermal energy and other clean energy options through research and investigation; 2) Students became familiar and proficient with different software technologies available to design and create an infographic; and 3) Students promoted their infographic through different social media outlets to spread their message about geothermal energy. The Challenge provided educators opportunities to engage students in science, technology, art, design, team-building, and social media avenues, to name a few. Once the nation s students and educators got wind of the competition, submissions took off. Over 105 teams submitted infographics that told a story about geothermal energy. What is the future of geothermal energy and how will it impact you? Teams of students focused on this question and illustrated their research in the form of an infographic a visual display of data, information, and text. As Mol (2011) writes, For enhancing the comprehension of information, knowledge and data, infographics are very effective. Creating a good infographic is more than doing a little research and finding an appealing color palette. Tack on the science component and the complexities unfold performing research; checking and re-checking facts; deciding on which facts to use; selecting an appropriate design and format to tell the story; choosing a color scheme; and laying out of the information. Wrapping all of these components into a tidy infographic requires time, coordination, and patience. 3. Contest Demographics Students of different ages, ethnicities, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, and interests participated in the contest. Utilizing crowdsourcing as a method to answer questions or gather information on a variety of topics can be a quick and effective way to engage the public to provide input about a topic of interest. As Greengard (2011) states in Following the Crowd, crowdsourcing is based on a simple but powerful concept: virtually everyone has the potential to contribute valuable information. Through the crowdsourcing contest, a mixture of infographics were delivered by the teams containing material from different perspectives, such as: Using geothermal energy to power different areas of the world (for example, Africa and South Carolina), The history of geothermal energy, A look at geothermal equipment (such as heat pumps) and geothermal plants, Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS),

4 Environmental impacts of geothermal energy, The future of geothermal energy (general and economic), Geothermal energy compared to other types of energy, and Geothermal workforce and education. Over 250 individual participants registered, creating over 105 unique teams. Participants were interested in fields besides those related to environmental science and/or policy. A survey of interests included: Environment science and policy Environmental Management Linguistics Physics Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Design Civil Engineering Mechanical Engineering Art and Film Direction Veterinary Behaviorist Nursing Health Art Aerospace Engineering Energy Science Computer Programming Applied Mathematics Business Administration English Computational Mathematics Actuary or Computer Engineering Astrophysics Environmental Engineering Different backgrounds and interests resulted in the many distinctive infographics submitted to the contest, each with its own spin on a geothermal topic. The topic of geothermal energy as part of the STEAM movement cultivated a great interest among educators. Several educators decided to include the competition as part of their classroom curriculum. One institution, in particular, had 30 teams participate in the competition. Still, with almost one-third of the teams from this one institution participating in the competition, many other educational institutions from around the nation competed. Educational institutions from 24 states and 35 different cities participated in the design challenge (see Figure 2).

5 Figure 2. Participant map. 4. Infographics and Communication Osborne and Witt (1985) suggest, contests provide application of principles and practices learned in other settings, development of personal and technical skills, an increase in student motivation, an opportunity to develop social and communication skills, and a positive influence on the development of one's self-confidence. The students gained foundational knowledge about geothermal energy and the impacts of this renewable energy source. Besides working within the teams they created, students also connected with appointed geothermal energy experts and graphic design mentors assigned to teams to facilitate technical and design-related discussions. The challenge acquainted students with problem solving and team-based experiences similar to working on project teams found in a real-world setting. The final stage of the competition involved teams who advanced to the final round to create social media plans for the created infographics. The aim was to have the greatest reach to the public in the shortest amount of time by using social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, for example) to promote the infographics. Almost 750,000 accounts were reached during the duration of the competition, with Facebook posts reaching almost 22,000 people and just over 4,700 LinkedIn impressions (the number of times each update is shown to members). One of the teams had an original Tweet from Patagonia (2016), a company supporting renewable energy use, which suggests the infographics reached more than educational institutions and students. We can see how social media influences the dissemination of information to educate the public and is not merely a tool to distract ourselves from real-time events and discussions (Van Epren). The infographics became a mechanism to inform and educate. Communicating science and research through design is a special skill set for today s scientist and researcher. There are many methods to communicate science and research - scientific journals, books, posters, presentations and talks, magazines, and blogs. Infographics happen to be a solution for converting words to images. Many designs simply put a bunch of data visualizations on the same page without a cohesive story. They include all the data available, instead of choosing only the data relevant to a central storyline. The process of good infographic design is about the storytelling and not about just making your data visualization pretty or eye-catching (Krum). By using available graphic

6 resources like Piktochart, Canva, and Adobe Illustrator, to name a few programs, teams were successful in telling an individual geothermal story through the use of infographics. The use of infographics to communicate information has become popular over the years. Since 2009, U.S. search for the term infographic has grown exponentially. Thirty years ago, the word was only used by art directors and print publications, but the internet has changed that (Krum). Based on data from Google Trends, data regarding people searching for the term infographic in the U.S. is shown in Figure 3. One could assume the increase in people searching the term could correlate with the increasing usage of infographics in communication. Figure 3. Google Trends researching term infographic 2009-present. 5. Reach and Outreach Reaching the public with the geothermal message came in several forms. During the competition, as mentioned earlier in the paper, social media outlets were used to promote the infographics. Additionally, the Challenge was mentioned in many online articles and webpages such as the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy s (EERE) Mentoring Matters: Engaging Students through Science and Arts and the Geothermal Resources Council Global Geothermal News USA: Finalists in Geothermal Energy Infographic Competition. Promoting the infographics didn t stop when the contest ended. Driving impact after the competition by promoting the infographics to winning schools, other participating educators, and energy organizations continue into Understanding who the competitors were and where the competition lacked participation during the 2016 contest will help with promoting future contests and creating targeted campaigns to engage those areas.

7 6. Conclusion The 2016 Geothermal Design Challenge was successful on many levels. Students had opportunities to learn about geothermal energy and other renewable and conventional energy sources. They learned about how to researching a topic, the importance of checking facts, and how to interpret the findings. They acquired skills on how to bring data and design together using graphics tools to tell a story to the public. They uncovered the power of social media and the far reach of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share their stories. They built teams and sharpened problem solving skills. The continued use of STEAM concepts in crowdsourcing contests like the geothermal design challenge to engage participants and educate the public is essential for the future of renewable energy, and science in general. REFERENCES Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Mentoring Matters: Engaging Students through Science and Arts. Retrieved from (2014, April 22) Geothermal Resources Council, USA: Finalists in Geothermal Energy Infographic Competition. Retrieved from (2016, July 22). Greengard, S. Following the crowd. Communications of the ACM, 54(2), (2011), Krum, R. Cool infographics: Effective communication with data visualization and design. John Wiley & Sons. (2013). Mol, L.V. The potential role for infographics in science communication. Master s thesis, Biomedical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2001). Osborne, E. and Witt, E. Keeping contests in perspective. Agricultural Education Magazine, 57(11), (1985), 7 How Can Geothermal Empower Us? Our friends at #YalEnergy with next level energy ideas. Retrieved from (2016, July 14). Van Eperen and Marincola. How scientists use social media to communicate their research. Journal of Translational Medicine, 9(199), (2011).