Fuel School

Problem Statement

The United States Air Force (USAF) is currently the largest consumer of fuel in the United States’ government. In efforts to reduce their fuel usage, the Air Force has tasked our team with creating a way to inform airmen on best practices for fuel efficiency. Our team, comprised of International Affairs and Biology majors, has been working to create a voluntary, incentivized, and interactive course to shift the culture within the USAF to be more energy conscious and to reach the energy goals set out by the Biden administration. From the start, our problem sponsor made it clear that whatever we came up with had to be voluntary due to the fact that there is already an abundance of mandatory training in the Air Force. This posed our first challenge since we knew airmen would not be too keen on the idea of additional training. Additionally, our problem sponsor emphasized educating the younger generation of airmen as opposed to the older, established ones. This was primarily because the younger generation would be more open to learning about new things and because they will eventually be the officers in command and could enforce this knowledge in the future. Another challenge we encountered was making sure the program we developed was not one that could be passively done without much engagement.

Solution

In order to develop a solution to this complicated problem, we conducted interviews with various members of the USAF, the JMU education and psychology departments, and the Air Force ROTC at JMU. From our interviews with education professors, we gathered that interactive, game based learning was the best way to not only educate people, but also to make the material stick. With this in mind, we steered away from powerpoint presentations and strictly asynchronous online courses. We at first aimed very high with a focus on creating a war game or even a video game for airmen but we soon realized those were a little too ambitious based on instructor feedback. From there we pivoted to creating a module based course but one that engaged students by posing scenarios, games, and simulations that they would work through. After each scenario or game, we created discussion and reflection questions for more critical thinking. When modifying the online course, we added a pre-course survey to gauge baseline knowledge and we included very few powerpoint slides to give background information to help complete the scenarios or games. In response to having the program be voluntary, we proposed a certification that would be given upon completing the course to put on an airman’s resume for future jobs in or outside of the Air Force. We hope to insert our final product into existing Academy courses and/or voluntary Air Force training that will result in a certification so future airmen and officers will be willing and eager to participate in a program that will result in a more energy efficient Air Force.

Our MVP: An outline of our Minimal Viable Product featuring modules that contain background information to help students work through the games and scenarios in each section. The modules also include discussion questions for the students to critically reflect on what they did. 

Meet the Team