Key West High School Alternative Energy Program

The Key West High School Alternative Energies Program was the first public high school "green" energy program in the state of Florida. First taught by Josh Clearman in the 2007-2008 school year the programs accomplishments are numerous and continue to grow every year.

The Class
The class, now taught by Mr. Josh Clearman and Mr. Scott Douthit, is a dual period class. By taking the class a student can receive 2 credits: 1 credit of Physics Honors and 1 credit of "Solar Technology". The class is taught with no textbook, much of the learning is done by either hands-on work or teacher-created worksheets. At times articles are printed out relating to in-class subjects, such as new "green" technologies, from on-line news sources. The class encourages students to look beyond the confines of the classroom to find new ways to improve the class, the school, the community, the world, and the environment.
Classroom Structure
The first quarter of the year comprises mainly of an introduction to basic physics and green energy. Taught from a neutral standpoint on the existence of global warming much of the reasons proposed for "going green" relate to the global economic costs of current energy production. "An Inconvenient Truth" is not shown.
The second quarter of the class is when all students (who did not do so on their own already) begin the hands-on portion of the class. Bio-diesel production begins after the students design their own production container structures. Students are given specific tasks for the quarter including finance management for the class, public relations, finding and applying for grants, updating and creating blogs, public relations, beautification projects for the alternative energies building, looking for and picking up donations from local businesses, and finding new ways to improve the school's energy use.
The Stephen T. Colbert Wind Turbine Complex
On November 12, 2009 the first of two wind turbines will be erected on campus as part of the program. This will make Key West High School the first high school in the United States to have working wind turbines on campus. These turbines were paid for by a grant from the Florida Green Alliance of $25,000. On November 17, 2009 a plan will be presented to the Monroe County School Board to name these turbines after Stephen T. Colbert in an attempt to garner national attention to the program. The turbines will be named "The Stephen T. Colbert Wind Turbine Complex". Support for the naming of these turbines is unanimous throughout the students and teachers of the class, and there is strong support throughout the rest of the school from both students and staff. The move to name these turbines is being led by spokes-student Heindrek Allen and has already led to major local attention for the program including 3 newspaper articles and 1 radio program interview.
<references/> Heindrek Allen, 2009-2010 spokes-student first person information.

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