Personal Connection

This project has definitely changed my view of inquiry learning. Prior to this research, I viewed inquiry learning as a very academic experience. Now, after completing the project I see inquiry learning as a process that is duly suited for outside of the classroom. For example, if I had been given the assignment to research green renovations in schools prior to this career change, it would have been a good academic exercise, but not really have any value to me. However, since we were given the freedom to make this assignment useful and personal, I think it has become a very valuable experience. I can see myself continuing to use this method as I research and plan more longterm projects in my career.

Wishing

Ithink the project went well. I enjoyed exploring something pertinent to me personally and to my career. That was by far the strongest part of the project, the real world aspect of it. I was able to gather data that came from an actual school district, and evaluate some of the changes that could be made for the better. I also have been able to suggest some changes that could lead our district in the right direction. Therefore, the fact that the inquiry included real world data, combined with my having a job that allows me to implement new ideas, has made this a valuable experience.

Probably the weakest part of the inquiry was just the need to narrow my ideas down to a small list. I found that I had so many ideas, it was hard to keep myself from getting carried away. However, I found that if I was going to go into the depth I wanted, it was important to not try to cover too many topics. I don't know that I would have done anything differently if given the opportunity, but for my topic, answers are not going to be found for a long time, so the inquiry will have to be extended for months or even years. Fortunately, since I am directly relating this project to my job, I will be able to continue this exploration.

My experience with inquiry was a good one, and I hope it is close to the experience learners have in their classrooms. I'm not positive this is the case though. Being that we were given the opportunity, I was able to let my project take me whereever it led. Looking back at my first posts, and then the most recent, it was obvious the focus of my inquiry changed as time went on. I don't know if students get the opportunity to alter assignments like this. I think that in many cases, a student is given an assignment and the teacher has an idea of how it should turn out. Even those assignments that are called inquiries still have an objective the teacher is trying to meet. So, I'm not sure that students get true inquiry opportunity in traditional classrooms. This assignment was valuable for me because it was true inquiry, but the objective of my learning was inquiry, not a specific content topic. Interesting thought.

Waving

The information I am finding will be valuable to share with others. As much as is it a personal and professional inquiry for me, I think others will gain from this study. As I mentioned in my previous post, I think school boards would benefit greatly from learning about green renovating and energy management. In this day and age, when money is tight, and not getting any better, schools need to begin planning for long term savings. This might mean making a bigger investment initially, and then waiting for the five, ten, or twenty year return. I am finding in my position as Director of Facilities that if we think budgets are tough now, wait a few more years. Therefore, if we can produce proper systems that will run more efficiently, we will save money in the long run. I plan to share this information with as many directors and administrators as possible. In my network of peers, the best way to share is to implement, so the plan is to try to put some of my ideas to practice. Hopefully then others will see and choose to model our green practices.

Wrapping

What I have enjoyed the most about this inquiry project is that it is so applicable to my job and the jobs of others. I have created a proposal for a ten year plan to change over the heating and cooling systems in all of my buildings. These new systems will be energy savers as well as more environmentally friendly, which was the original goal of the project. Any district that currently uses boiler heat, which is most, could model this plan.

Second, this inquiry could be applicable when asking school boards to invest dollars in recycling and green renovations. It is often difficult to convince the board that money is needed at this time, for something that will pay off years down the road. However, this inquiry has provided some data that may help show the value of the investment.

This is personally important to me, because as a Facilities Director, I am painfully aware of the inefficiencies and environmental concerns of my buildings. Although it will take time, my hope is that I can make strides towards making my buildings more environmentally friendly and efficient, as well as provide ideas for others.

Weaving

As I've collected information and my research has taken shape, I have started to organize information and determine which pieces of data are useful to me and my goals. The ways to work with my facilites and make them more environmentally friendly and energy efficient are relatively straightforward. However, my data analysis and organization basically consisted of viewing cost versus savings over time. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my school district does have an energy management plan, and we have saved over a million dollards. Therefore, it was easy to see that the salary of an energy manager and an energy consultant.

I used similar strategies when thinking about my other ideas. Again, as I've mentioned, I am seriously considering presenting a plan to revamp our HVAC system. The system at one of our elementary schools has recently been re-commissioned, which means it was evaluated for deficiencies. To sum up results, it would be wiser to replace the system than fix it. So I started to analyze the potential efficiency problems of these units compared to the cost of replacing. Re-doing all of these units in every building, and likely going geothermal, would be a huge undertaking. and cost millions of dollars. However, I was able to compare to the savings of a more efficient system, and it appears we could break even on the investment within ten years. Over the life of the building, this might be viable option.

I also started to begin creating charts that gave me insight on how students view recycling. For example, I asked a sample of students, some from each grade K-12, their thoughts on recycling. What I found was interesting. The older the students, the more they felt recycling was important. However, all students felt that in practice, they could do a better job of actually following through. Some of the older students felt that if they had received some direction instruction when they were younger, habits may have been formed and they potentially could be better about recycling.

Finally, I looked at solar panels for heat or electricity. This was an interesting venture, and the results surprised me. I was able to determine that in small doses, solar energy could help heat or power our schools. However, even when compared to the HVAC option I mentioned early, making our investment worthwhile would take a long time, making it an unattractive option.

More wiggling

I had an interesting conversation today with our Director of Finance. We discussed the long term concerns of the HVAC units in our buildings. I discussed in my last entry that all of the systems are old and need a lot of upkeep. Something we talked about was whether it made sense to continue to re-commission them and fix them, or if we should look at a long term solution to replace them. I took this as a good sign, that she might be open to explore some creative financing to begin a potential multi-year transition. Steps in the right direction.

Wiggling

At this point, I have gathered a great deal of data and ideas about going green with educational facilities. I have found that a great deal of the information and ideas seem to be dreamworld ideas. For example, it would be wonderful to heat my schools using solely solar panels, but the reality is that A)we live in Minnesota and the amount of solar energy to heat the buildings would be hard to gather and B)the cost to convert our heating systems to solar would be a difficult investment to sell to a school board.

Another topic I am finding a lot about is energy conservation and management. I have been able to evalutate this idea using hard data from our school district. We began our energy management program began in 2004, and to date we have saved over 1.4 million dollars in energy. We have done that by diligently reminding staff to work on the energy saving strategies. We also employ an energy manager in our district, and his salary has paid for itself many times over with the money we have saved.

Next, I was able to explore another idea to help our district become more evironmentally friendly, and that is to gradually transform our heating systems to geothermal heat. All buildings are currently run with boilers except our high school, which is heated geothermally. I was able to view the cost analysis, and the emission reports from each of the schools. Our high school produces less emissions than the the other schools, and the heating system costs less to operate on an ongoing basis. However, due to the higher cost of installing this system, it took approximately ten years to break even when comparing higher cost of installation and savings of operation. This is still an exciting idea to look into however, as all of the boilers in our buildings are old and need a great deal of annual maintenance. Several of them will need replacements in the next ten years. Therefore, when investing for the long term future of the district, I am wondering if it will make sense to begin replacing them with a geothermal system. This is a great possibility, one that I think over time will be likely option.

Finally, the last option I have explored that might be a good possibility is a more aggressive recycling system in our district. Currently, we recycle paper and aluminum, but it is not enforced aggressively and the culture is not that of recycling. Teachers and staff tend to do a nice job of this, but student struggle. I have looked into the option of teaching a recycling unit to kindergartners and first graders, and the cost of this unit is almost zero if I am willing to put in some time to prepare the materials.

On another note, I am very excited about an efficiency study that is being done right now for the district. A company that we buy supplies from is looking into our cleaning process and developing an analysis of how many man hours each building should take to clean and maintain. This should help me reallocate resources if needed, and lead to cost savings and efficiency. I'm hoping that this savings will help free up budget for me to try some of these green ideas with my buildings.