Developing a Next-Generation Community College Curriculum for Energy-Efficient High-Performance Building Operations

1. Developing a Next-Generation Community College Curriculum for Energy-Efficient High-Performance Building Operations Peter Crabtree, Peralta Community College District Nick Kyriakopedi, Laney College Evan Mills, Philip Haves, Roland J. Otto, Mary Ann Piette, Peng Xu, Rick Diamond, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Joe Deringer, The Deringer Group Chuck Frost, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

2. Outline • Need for new skills • New curriculum • Approach to education • Computer-based education tool • Articulation with high schools and 4-year colleges • Testing and dissemination

3. Need for new skills • Growing awareness of operational problems • Operators and service technicians in front line • Community colleges the main source of education • Need to update ‘traditional’ curricula: • controls • troubleshooting • commissioning • Partnership: • Perralta Community College District • LBNL • The Deringer Group • NSF-funded project

4. Focus group - I

5. Focus group - II

6. New curriculum - I Technical Skills: • Basic building science: physics and math and theory of how buildings work • Information technology and networking • Diagnosing and trouble-shooting problems • Control system programming • Sustainable design - green buildings • Performance measurement and analysis • Safety and risk management

7. New curriculum - II Business Skills: • Working with people, reporting, etc. • Economic and financial analysis (including assessment of non-economic benefits) • Communicating analyses and recommendations to decision makers • Critical thinking • Problem solving

8. Educational approach - I Problem-based learning: • premise: learning more effective in context • employers provide ‘real world’ problems – complexity and ambiguity are pluses • students work in teams to solve problems: • define actual problem • identify information and other resources required • almost no lectures

9. Educational approach Concept-based learning: • Assignments due before class • Use text books etc for majority of learning • Use class to fill in the gaps • Use personal response system to pose simple problems that test concepts – lecture, discuss or move on depending on response Combine problem-based learning, concept-based learning and computer-based educational tools

10. Computer-based education tool - I Simulation-based tool, based on SPARK: • Understand the operating principles of HVAC system components • Diagnose basic equipment problems at the component level • Use goal-oriented, problem-solving methods at a systems level to find solutions to more complex equipment problems • Focus on problem-solving methodologies in finding system

11. Software-only tool

12. ‘Hardware-in-the-loop’ tool - I

13. ‘Hardware-in-the-loop’ tool - II

14. Articulation with high schools and 4-year colleges High school: • Parallel project to develop a high school applied physics course • Inform and engage prospective college students • Most physical phenomena occur in buildings 4-year colleges: • Encourage bright students to move on • Universities welcome motivated students • Provide disadvantaged students with opportunities

15. Testing and dissemination • Curriculum materials and computer-based tools to be tested: • Laney College • Other community colleges in CA • Summer training programs for instructors • Materials and tools to be freely available and widely distributed • Tools will be open source to encourage further development and customization