Students at the 2015 Sustainable Energy Practicum with the devices they made with readily available materials.

The Sustainable Energy Technology Program Enhancement at Missoula College offers a unique opportunity to learn about renewable energy technologies in Montana.

The two-week practicum combines high-level technical instruction with practical approaches to energy challenges. For instance, one of the class activities last summer used soda cans to build photovoltaic cells for residential solar energy systems.

Several $1,500 stipends are available for two-year college faculty and high school teachers to attend the program. Applications will be accepted from February 15 to May 15. The program will be offered from June 13 to 24 at Missoula College in Missoula, Montana, and from June 27 to July 8 at Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Montana. The Blackfeet Nation, which the college serves, is located at the gateway to Glacier National Park.

Three building trades instructors from Blackfeet Community College have been involved in the program this past year, according to Bradley Layton, an associate professor in the Applied Computing and Engineering Technology Department at Missoula College and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education project that includes the practicum. "We've been involving them as much as we can," he said of the tribal college's faculty.

The two weeks of instruction in classrooms, labs, and outdoor settings are open to educators from tribal colleges, community colleges, and high schools; students from Blackfeet Community College and Montana high schools; and students from around the nation who are enrolled in Missoula College's online energy technology degree program. The required practicum for the online associate degree is the two-week sustainable energy course and a one-week circuits lab course. Program graduates include technicians and individuals who work on sustainable energy policies for their employers.

Up-cycling Embedded in Sustainable Energy Practicum

While the entire degree program covers traditional energy and renewable energy technologies, the face-to-face course in Montana focuses on "maximizing the utility of materials that otherwise would go to waste," Layton said.

Layton explains that this emphasis on up-cycling helps educators and students see the potential for renewable energy systems that they can devise from readily available materials, which in remote locations like Montana are expensive to recycle.

"It's difficult to justify the cost of putting a bunch of squished aluminum cans on a train to Seattle,"  stated Layton, who is currently working on a book about landfill-free living.

Layton has written more than 70 scientific papers and edited the textbook Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, published in 2015. He earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, and PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. 

In August 2015 Montana Governor Steve Bullock presented Layton with a Montana Innovator Award. He was selected for this award by Montanans for Good Jobs and Clean Air, a nonpartisan coalition of organizations and businesses united in support of a responsible energy future. During the award presentation Bullock mentioned the ATE grant that includes the sustainable energy practicum and Layton's collaboration with Blackfeet Community College.

Tribal College Student Presents Information About His Practicum Experience

Austin Heavy Runner, a construction technology student at Blackfeet Community College, took the practicum course in the summer of 2015 and described it as  “very awesome."

Heavy Runner presented information about his experience in the course during a student showcase session at the 2015 ATE Principal Investigators Conference in Washington, D.C.

During the course last summer he and other students built a micro-hydro electric system out of plywood. He had already worked at a greenhouse that operates off the electric grid but in the practicum course was able to explore other renewable energy technologies.

"I want to produce it [energy] for the entire community," Heavy Runner said. He plans  to transfer to Missoula College to complete a degree in sustainable energy technologies and then return to the tribal community in Browning, Montana.

"I just want to help my community. There's a lot of poverty on the reservation," he said.

Videos from previous Sustainable Energy Summer practicums: http://mc.umt.edu/acet/Academic_Programs/NRGY/Practicum.php

Recent Layton keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RizUtcEY0PY