Hollandsentinel.com reports...

Clever students earn trip for teacher

STAFF REPORT 

A West Ottawa High School science teacher's students helped her win a business trip to Hawaii as part of a national science contest organized by Johnson Controls Inc.

"I was very proud of the work that they put into it," said Jean Kegerreis, a chemistry and zoology teacher. "It was the very first time I had done this so I had no idea how they would stack up against any other class."

Johnson Controls' 2008 Igniting Creative Energy Challenge is an essay contest in which students brainstorm ways to protect the environment.

Kegerreis was the teacher with the highest average score of student work from 15 or more qualifying entries, and was named the national winner.

Kegerreis is now joining student winners at conferences in Hawaii and Washington, D.C.

To help students come up with ideas, Kegerreis showed students newscasts from a technology conference in Las Vegas, encouraging them to think about new technologies in addition to subjects they had covered in class.

Students submitted plans for decreasing energy usage at home in the broader community, she said.

Johnson Controls is a global company, based in Milwaukee, with sites in Holland Township.

The contest is sponsored and funded through a grant by Johnson Controls, with additional support from Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and the United States Energy Association, and is administered by the National Energy Foundation.

To view the article on the hollansentinel.com website visit http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/033108/local_20080331017.shtml