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What's happening in the Spring Valley area? |
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SV Physics
Students Study Wind Power
Students in the Electricity & Magnetism (E&M) class at Spring Valley High spent the last part of
the school year learning about generating electricity from wind, and they began a long-term feasibility study on developing
wind power on the high school campus. 
The undertaking began last year when Michele Huppert, the physics teacher, wrote
a grant to the Spring Valley Education Foundation for a professional-quality, wireless weather station to monitor the wind
and other weather parameters continuously, both to supply the data for a wind power feasibility study and for students to
study local weather patterns. When the weather station arrived this spring, Huppert convinced her husband, Eric, to fabricate
a bracket to harmlessly attach the weather station to an existing light pole and to donate the Team Oil Travel Center’s
lift and labor to mount the remote station. 
Huppert also made a connection with Steve Hintz, an Automation and Controls Instructor at
Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (WITC), and he agreed to purchase and donate KidWind kits for her E&M
students to design, construct, and test working small-scale wind turbine models.
The installed equipment has worked flawlessly and collected continuous data on
temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind since April 15. The weather station and wireless signal repeater are solar
powered and were mounted 30 feet off the ground on existing poles to minimize the installation expense. Carson Klug is leading
the effort to analyze the data and research the feasibility of wind power. So far, more than one third of the days have had
measured average wind speeds greater than 9 miles per hour, which is ideal for wind power. The table-top wind turbine models donated by Hintz at WITC allowed all of the physics students to put the theoretical
knowledge of electricity and magnetism gained over the semester into practice. Students wound coils, designed blade arrangements
and gear boxes, arranged magnetic fields, and constructed rectifier circuits for both Savonius and horizontal axis wind generators.
They were able to measure the power created by their models under various conditions and even used the energy of wind to light
bulbs and play pre-recorded electronic music.
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| Carson constructs a blade assembly |
“With the energy crisis in the news, this is a great project to engage students
in real problems and potential scientific solutions on the local level. I hope these kinds of experiences inspire my students
to pursue careers in science and technology,” said Huppert. “Another great lesson for the kids here is about importance
of building partnerships to get things accomplished. This would not be possible without the support and collaboration of the
SV Education Foundation, the local School Board & Administration, WITC, Team Oil, and motivated students.” 
SV
Science Students Win Scientific Research Cruise on Lake Michigan
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| Team on the Neeskay |
Five National Ocean Science
Bowl (NOSB) students from Spring Valley travelled to Milwaukee to participate in the scientific research cruise they won in
the 2008 Lake Sturgeon Bowl. In that state level competition of NOSB, 24 teams from across Wisconsin faced off in head-to-head, fast-paced, buzz-in competitions
and longer team challenges covering all aspects of oceanography from biology and chemistry to geology, physics, and history.
The respectable 2nd place finish of the Spring Valley team earned them a cruise on the Great Lakes WATER Institute’s
research vessel Neeskay, gift certificates, and various oceanography resources. |
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| Students measure quaggas |
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| Students weigh quaggas |
Amanda
Finke, Christien Huppert, Carson Klug, Keygan Sands, Nick Sortedahl, and Coach Michele Huppert spent May 26-27 with Senior
Scientist Russell Cuhel of the WATER Institute constructing a carbon budget for Lake Michigan. A carbon budget is a mathematical model accounting for all the carbon stored
in, entering, or leaving the lake. Dr. Cuhel worked with the students on Monday evening, teaching them about the chemistry
of carbon balance in the atmosphere, lake, and lake sediments. The students formed a hypothesis about the significance of
quagga mussels, whose shells are carbon-based, on the carbon budget of the lake. (Quagga mussels are an invasive species in
the Great Lakes, somewhat similar to zebra mussels, but even more prolific.) Students were especially interested in this question
in light of industrial carbon dioxide emissions and the ability of water bodies to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. |
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| Dr. Cuhel demonstrates carbon analysis |
Tuesday morning, the students
worked with Dr. Cuhel in the lab analyzing the carbon content of quagga shells collected the week before. They measured and
constructed graphical models of the population distribution for the mussels. Students also characterized the density of quagga
mussels on the bottom of Lake Michigan. In the afternoon, the students were able to get out on Lake Michigan to collect some
samples of their own; however, they were limited to collecting inside the Milwaukee Harbor, since the open lake was heaving
with 10-foot waves. After the lake excursion, students returned to the lab to do chemical analyses of lake water samples.
The students worked with Dr. Cuhel until nearly 10 pm pulling all their measurements and analyses together and making sense
out of the data. In the end, they found that the quagga mussel shells, which can be as dense as 15,000 mussels per square
meter of lake bottom, are a significant part of the carbon cycle, containing one third of the total carbon in the coastal
waters of Lake Michigan. The students felt that the whole experience was very interesting and educational.
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| Trying survival suits |
“This was an incredible learning experience for the students,”
said Coach Huppert. “Most undergraduate college students majoring in science don’t get this kind of opportunity
to participate in real research with professional scientists, and this was the third such trip for a couple our junior students.
It is a testament to the effectiveness and value of the NOSB program that it can get students living in the middle of the
continent this excited about oceanography and water science.”
To learn more about NOSB, visit http://www.nosb.org |
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Welcome to Beautiful Spring Valley, WI - Come to Play, Come to Stay!
Website
provided courtesy of the Team Oil Travel Center.
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