International inter-disciplinary energy education Delta volunteer training includes EV material

In the spirit of our mission “To provide innovative, clean, and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow”, the Delta Electronics Foundation established Delta Energy Volunteers Team at the Taipei headquarters in 2008 and has been visiting primary schools near the office to promote energy education every year since then. It’s estimated that ten thousand families have benefited each year. On October 5-6, the 10th Volunteer Training Workshop was held at the Taipei Headquarters. Shan-Shan Guo, Delta Electronics Foundation’s Executive Director, was there to encourage volunteers from different plant and factories, especially the Delta volunteers in blue vests. The moment they step into campuses, they are the best Delta brand ambassadors!

In order to emphasize the importance of “transportation” to carbon reduction, this year’s energy volunteer training will expand beyond the familiar building energy conservation field to address the most popular topics currently: low-carbon transport and electrical vehicles (EV). The course has designed a set of electromagnetism teaching equipment and related materials, and invited seed instructors from DET (DEI and DET are associate companies) and Delta Americas Headquarters (DPC) to participate as students. The two overseas factories are planning to begin the volunteering activities next year.

Volunteers work with motors, coils, electricity balls, and other teaching materials during the course

The majority of the Delta Energy Volunteers over the years have been engineers, and most of them have electromechanical backgrounds. Therefore, this year's course is designed to open with a science experiment, inviting Yu-Nian Su, a retired teacher from Huwei Senior High School, who has toured in over one hundred schools in remote areas. He has designed ten-plus patented teaching tools to tell the life story of and explain various scientific discoveries of the “Father of Electricity” Michael Faraday. Su’s personal office is just like a science laboratory. He taught volunteers to operate the equipment and to work with motors, coils, electricity balls, and other teaching materials in person, hoping to “charge them up” for their future energy education volunteer work!

Then, the course was followed by two other instructors from outside the company: Eli Liu, founder of Green E2, and Xin-He Hsu, Taipei Bus Company (Capital Bus) Equipment Department Assistant VP. Mr. Liu shared personal EV driving and purchasing experiences, while answering related questions and debunking rumors. Mr. Hsu gave his opinions from the viewpoint of management in the public transportation industry and offered volunteers basic understandings of the EV promotion status in Taiwan.

Day two was carried outside the company. The morning was spent visiting the EV industry at the Tesla Branch Office in Neihu, and spent the afternoon at Minghu Primary School, where volunteers had the opportunity to try out their teaching skills. The afternoon portion of the course was hosted by the Qiankun employee Jin-Bei Lin, who was a volunteer since the volunteer project was initiated. He shared his experience as a volunteer guide at the “World of Physics” exhibition at the National Museum of Natural Science, and taught everyone how to transform seemingly-cold scientific knowledge into intriguing life experiences. For instance, the triangular spinning top instantly explains the driving principles of EVs.

Volunteers visiting Neihu Tesla Branch Officeto understand the market trend

Electrical vehicle driving principles explained by using scientific experience in daily life

Despite the relatively abundant environment education resources in Taiwan, our energy education is generally lacking in teachers and professional teaching materials. Therefore, during the course development, the Delta Foundation especially wanted to dive in from the large trends of international carbon reduction while using real applications of Delta products as proof.

Following green buildings, this year’s teaching materials were particularly focused on the transport sector, which has high potentials in carbon reduction. The teaching materials are also integrated with science education: from the basics of electromagnetism and demonstration tools to allow students to observe magnets, direct and inverse magneto electric effects, and other science phenomena, to understand that knowledge in the textbooks is not just for taking exams, but could be used on low carbon vehicles such as maglevs and EVs. We hope Delta volunteers will spread energy knowledge outside of the workplace to inspire more kids to develop an interest in scientific discovery, energy conservation, and carbon reduction.

Delta volunteers spread energy knowledge outside of the workplace to inspire more kids to develop an interest in scientific discovery, energy conservation, and carbon reduction