Drake High School 2007 Visit

February 26, 2007

Juniors in the SEA-DISC (Studies of the Environment Academy - Drake Integrated Studies Curricula) program of San Francis Drake High School (San Rafael) have been visiting the Environmental Energy Technologies Division annually since the late 1990s to learn about energy-efficient technology development. This year, 28 juniors and two teachers came on February 28th. In the morning, they performed a lab exercise on the physics of energy-efficient cool roof technology with instruction from Roland J. Otto, former director, now retired, of Berkeley Lab's Center for Science and Engineering Education [see photos].

After lunch in Berkeley Lab's cafeteria, they visited the sputtering laboratory, where EETD research associate Jonathan Slack gave them an interactive demonstration of depositing a thin metal coating on materials, in this case, a set of dimes and pennies. Students formed into groups and assisted Jonathan with the sputtering process; one group served as an economic analysis team, reporting on the costs of the process.

Researchers from the Windows and Daylighting group use this lab to create advanced coatings for next-generation energy-efficient windows—the R&D 100-winning transition metal switchable mirror was developed in this lab.