SALEM — A few clicks of a mouse and what is essentially a five-megawatt “battery” is online.

LaCreole Middle School science teacher Ken Guffey is at the controls — really a computer and series of monitors at PGE’s Smart Power Center in Salem.

Guffey and three other LaCreole math and science teachers were participating in South Metro-Salem STEM Partnership’s PGE STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Workshop on Friday. The workshop included a series of tours and presentations demonstrating how teachers can show students “real world” connections to the lessons they teach in class.

Teachers from three school districts — Dallas, Newberg and Salem-Keizer — joined the all-day workshop.

On the power center tour, it was the teachers’ curiosity that was piqued, especially at the end when Guffey was given the opportunity to flip the power switch on the smart grid.

The first step — turning on the center’s bank of lithium-ion batteries — ends in a series of pops.

“Hear that noise?” said Kevin Whitener, PGE engineer and Smart Grid Project manager. “Ken is connecting the whole system.”

“I’ve got the power!” Guffey said, smiling.

“He does, he has five megawatts of power,” Whitener said.

The Smart Power Center is part of a five-year demonstration project developing technology in energy storage, integrating renewable energy, and creating better power plant efficiency. It is an example of the type of technology the energy industry would like to implement nationwide — as well as one of the innovative career pathways science, math and engineering students have open to them.

Guffey, along with Dallas High School teacher Lee Jones and Whitworth Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Brian Williamson, are part of a consortium working to develop a STEM program in the Dallas School District. LaCreole’s math and science instructors also will develop ways to use what they learned Friday in the classroom.

Teachers spent Friday morning taking a virtual tour of Sanyo Solar of Oregon, PGE’s smart plant, and Covanta Energy in Brooks. In the afternoon, teachers attended workshops on sample lessons and how to adapt them to their classrooms.

#Guffey said what STEM lessons will look like at LaCreole is a work in progress, but learning about possible career applications — and being able to share that with students — is a big first step.

“Having an outside facility that you can talk with is really important,” Guffey said. “That’s what I lack — that ‘Hey guys, this is how you are going to use this stuff we are trying to teach you.’”

PGE, and other science and technology-heavy industries, sees partnerships with schools as crucial to its future. Teachers like those who took the tour Friday will play a critical role in shaping its workforce, said PGE spokeswoman Melanie Moir.

“It’s neat to see the teachers engaging and thinking about what they will bring back to their classrooms about that real-world experience,” Moir said. “The teachers are the ones who are going to reach the students and we see the students as the workforce of our future. Opportunity abounds as long as our students are properly prepared.”

She said technology industries will soon be calling on those students.

“We see a wave of retirements coming,” she said, adding there is already more demand for workers than what can be filled.

Math and science teachers in Dallas hope to develop programs that will better prepare their students to fill that void.

“Honestly, having the information is the first part of it,” Guffey said. “The next part is trying to figure out how to integrate it. We are going to sit down as a team and figure out what we can do now.”

Written by: Jolene Guzman