Richard Townsend

The winning "Alternative Energy Learning Lab" program created by Townsend is designed to directly impact more than 80 students in the physics, environmental science, agricultural mechanics and basic agriscience courses. The program will then help teach more than 700 students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. Curriculum topics will include energy production, energy usage, home energy audits, energy feasibility studies, and alternative energies for the home. Currently the school uses a tractor-trailer sized mobile science lab that has doubled as a chemistry facility. With the students' help, the school will convert the lab into an alternative energy facility that will supply its own heat. The facility will provide electrical energy for the school district through a grid-tie system, easing the concerns of the Board of Education regarding the energy costs associated with maintaining the lab. Townsend lives in Otego.