Cal U. science program a gas for inner-city students
Cal U.’s Dr. Janie McClurkin-Moore introduces Pittsburgh Obama students to the Biogas Energy Academy event. More than one hundred students spent the day at the SAI Farm discussing and learning about energy.
Dr. Janie McClurkin-Moore talks about the biogas generation system on Cal U.’s SAI Farm on Monday. The biogas generation system takes cow manure and breaks it down into methane gas.
From left, Pittsburgh Obama eighth-graders Sydney Jackson and JaQuay Paul work together on a worksheet during the Biogas Energy Academy event. Students headed to the Student Association Inc.’s 94-acre farm to learn about the future of energy.
Pittsburgh Obama student Rennaijha Ziegler focuses on a worksheet at the Biogas Energy Academy event at California University of Pennsylvania. More than 100 eighth-graders attended the event to learn more about energy use and alternative energy.
COAL CENTER – Their buses were running 45 minutes late, and no – they were told – there would be no cows at this farm. But 106 inner-city eighth-graders did not consider their midday excursion to be a waste.
“This is a biogas generation system,” Dr. Janie McClurkin-Moore said, while standing beside what appeared to be a small hot water tank.
Then the California University professor explained the process in a way an eighth-grader can best appreciate.
“This,” she said, “operates like your stomach. It produces gas the way your system produces gas.
“It turns waste into energy. Manure, from local farmers, goes in the top, and water is blended in. Bacteria in the manure eats at carbohydrates and creates methane gas. The methane goes through a tube and into another system, and becomes a form of electricity.”
Students from Pittsburgh Obama 6-12 school traveled 30 miles Monday morning to participate in the Biogas Energy Academy, a program organized by McClurkin-Moore, a prof in the Biological and Environmental Sciences Department. The teens learned about energy use and alternative energy at the university’s SAI Farm, a 94-acre tract on the upper campus. It sits across Interstate 43 from the main campus and near California Technology Park.
The program is a byproduct of a $2,600 grant Cal U. got from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. McClurkin-Moore said it is a one-year grant, “but we’re working on making this an annual project.”
Her motivation to organize the project is partly personal. McClurkin-Moore, who has a Ph.D in agricultural and biological engineering from Purdue University, grew up in inner-city Columbus.
“We wanted to focus on middle-school students, because that’s a key age to show them about college,” she said. “The purpose was to get students from a Pittsburgh public school to not only see Cal U., but a farm. This also was my opportunity to talk to students who come from a neighborhood like the one I came from, which was like Homewood here in Pittsburgh.”
Obama school is in East Liberty, adjacent to Homewood in Pittsburgh’s East End. Students from multiple neighborhoods attend classes there. The eighth-graders were eager participants Monday, as 106 of 120 returned signed permission slips to attend.
The teens, apparently, were disappointed on one count. “They thought they were going to milk cows,” James Vanderloos said with a smile. He is an eighth-grade science teacher from Hickory, one of four Obama instructors to accompany the youths.
Vanderloos was pleased with the invite. “(Cal) contacted us, giving us an opportunity, and we jumped on it,” he said. He added that he liked Monday’s program, saying his science students “love chemical reactions and pH levels.”
Students didn’t completely get away from classroom work during the trip, as McClurkin-Moore lectured about energy. She talked about the cost of leaving on a TV or an appliance, charging a cellphone, and the need to conserve energy. These are wastes as well, she explained, ones that some youths didn’t fully realize.
Split into two groups, the teens toured the farm, which was purchased by Cal U.’s Student Association Inc. within the past decade, said Dr. Sarah Meiss, a prof in McClurkin-Moore’s department. She and a group of undergraduate and graduate students assisted during the event.
SAI Farm, Meiss said, is a multiple-use tract – “from educational to recreational to community opportunities.” A 40-tree orchard, near the entrance, was instituted last year and will one day provide apples, plums, peaches, cherries and pears for the Greater Washington County Food Bank, the Cal U. Cupboard food pantry and others. A garden, beehives, wetlands and a fitness trail are among the features.
There were no cows, but for more than 100 city kids, Biogas Energy Academy was a moo-ving experience.