Camas Heritage high school students honored for innovations

CAMAS — A small rooftop wind turbine. A mosaic-like picture window sprinkled with embedded solar-power cells that lets in plenty of natural sunlight, too.

Even a hallway floor that captures and converts kinetic energy — from walkers to electrical watts.

Creative students from Camas and Heritage high schools have won praise — and hundreds of dollars' worth of software — for showing off innovative prototypes that might someday be common alternative energy options.

Several teams nabbed awards at the Imagine Tomorrow competition recently held at Washington State University's Pullman campus. More than 300 students on 89 small squads competed for a share of prize money in four challenge categories: behavioral, technological, design and multidisciplinary.

It's one of the first tangible payoffs for the math, science and technology magnet program Camas High created in 2007. The program has 30 sophomores and 31 freshman students enrolled, so far.

"It was cool just to be around all these other kids with ideas," said Alec Maier, 15, who checked out the projects displayed in WSU's Bohler Gymnasium.

Maier and three fellow sophomores had helped to install a wind turbine on the Camas High roof this spring. The turbine begins cranking in a mere 7 mph breeze and could produce an estimated 170 kilowatt-hours during a full school year, he said.

The group's next step is to install a power inverter to convert energy to alternating current and plug into the CHS electrical grid, Maier said. If the plan succeeds, more turbines could power other Camas schools.

It's much the same for a team of five CHS sophomores who designed and test-drove a hands-on "green" curriculum for Prune Hill Elementary School third-graders.

Lessons in composting, recycling, energy conservation and alternatives, and local buying decisions kept the youngsters engaged, team members said. The teens honed their own teaching and presentation skills, "not just to present (to judges) but also to talk to a group," said Amy Siebenthaler.

She and her teammates, too, hope to replicate the program across Camas schools.

As the Camas magnet program grows, juniors and seniors will attempt to turn prototypes and proposals into reality, said math teacher Gary Moller, one of six instructors involved.

"By senior year, these will be real, authentic, college-level projects, so kids can really solidify their career path," Moller said.

Most of the WSU competitive projects were built outside of class with critical help from local mentors, a significant component of the magnet program, he noted.

In collaboration with a local glass artist, Sarah Hall, and mentor Jonathan Lovegrove, an all-freshman Camas team came up with the project deemed "Most Likely to Succeed in the Marketplace." It built upon Hall's idea to blend small photovoltaic cells and colored glass tiles into large windows to be installed at the new Grass Valley Elementary School.

The team's 15-square foot prototype lets ample light through while pumping 30 to 45 watts of power — enough to play music on small speakers to impress WSU event judges.

Other local entries captivated judges, too.

A "Most Innovative" award went to a Heritage High team that brainstormed an energy-grabbing hallway floor that uses footsteps to power its overhead lights, with potential savings of $500 in electricity cost in one school year alone.

"Competitors' Favorite" honors went to a Camas High team that surveyed the viability of student-generated power using exercise bikes at the school.