PHYS286A: GREEN ENGINEERING DESIGN (SPRING 2011)
Energy crisis. War in Iraq. Advances in technology. Economic woes. Rising gas prices. Global warming. Massive oil spills. Green engineering has been around since humans started using tools, but a confluence of events in the past few years has made green engineering one of the fastest growing fields in the United States. Students will be given a chance to see first-hand how engineers design power plants, buildings and transportation to be cleaner and more energy efficient. We will visit power plants, manufacturers, and buildings that use innovative and environmentally conscious design. For part of the semester we will focus on automobiles, and will visit with the engineers of Edison2, the winner of the Automotive X-Prize competition. Students will design and build their own scale cars, and will work with the Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby and the Randolph College Science Festival.
Hours credit: 3. Prerequisite: one semester of any science. One time only.
- Teacher: Peter Sheldon