MEDB Celebrates Earth Day with App Giveaway

Hawaii’s only Clean Energy iPad App is free for a special Earth Day celebration. Courtesy of MEDB.

By Sonia Isotov

Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) Women in Tech Project and NSC Partners LLC are making free downloads available for their Clean Energy Hawaii STEM App for Apple’s iPad users in celebration of Earth Day, April 19-24, 2012.

The educational app was created for middle, high school and general ipad users to learn about solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and biomass clean energy.

The Clean Energy Hawaii STEM iPad App was featured as “New and Noteworthy” in both the Education and Educational Game categories in the Apple App Store.

The App was developed as an interactive tool to complement MEDB’s Island Energy Inquiry curriculum.  It further allows teachers and home schooling parents to augment their existing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum, as well as initiate new STEM learning and discovery.

“What better way to help teachers engage students in science, technology and math than through the most exciting technology tool available — the iPad,” said Leslie Wilkins, vice president of MEDB, in a written statement.

Seven unique activities are included in the iPad App and include:

• Tap into the geothermal heat of the earth.
• Explore the difference between sugar cane and switchgrass biomass.
• Build a custom wind farm and experiment with generators and wind speeds.
• Discover how flow, height, and turbines can change hydroelectric power production.
• Imagine that your iPad is a photovoltaic solar panel and position it correctly to generate 40 watts of power in locations around the world.
• Quiz yourself and learn how peak sun hours vary month to month for ten world locations.
• Add photovoltaic panels, clouds, and batteries to a solar farm to understand real world challenges for solar energy production.

Clean Energy Hawaii STEM 1.0 is usually available for $9.99 through the ITunes Store in the Education category and in the Educational Games category.

Educators can get a 50% discount when they register under the Apple App Store Volume Purchase Program for educational institutions.