Development and Porting of iCons III: Student-Designed Labs in Renewable Energy

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There are daunting technological challenges in bringing the potential of renewable energy such as solar energy and biofuels to fruition, requiring collaboration among leaders in science, engineering, and social science. Despite this need for multidisciplinary integration, university science education remains firmly rooted in separate silos. The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) is tackling this issue through the Integrated Concentration in Science (iCons) program, a new national model of integrative education that sets multidisciplinary student teams to work on current societal problems such as renewable energy. Holyoke Community College (HCC) has likewise developed its own integrative 2-year clean energy program. Jointly they develop a renewable energy laboratory course. The course trains students to design and carry out unique experiments on subjects such as algae biofuels, plastic solar cells, and new energy-efficient building materials. This new UMass/HCC partnership produces students with leadership and laboratory experience in clean energy problems, able to cross disciplinary boundaries in search of useful solutions. The resulting laboratory modules will be disseminated nationally and globally for broadest impact. The partnership produces new pathways for HCC students to transfer to 4-year programs. And most important, the UMass/iCons and HCC programs produce the next generation of leaders in science with the attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed to solve the inherently multidisciplinary technology problems facing our nation.