Rapid Relevance: When Learning Moves at the Speed of Innovation

Mariah Presley (00:02) Welcome back to This Educational Life, a train podcast. And congratulations. If you're listening to this mid-season special, you are about to be introduced to two train insiders on the bleeding edge of industry and educational partnerships of the future. Chris Torline (00:18) The pace of change that's happening so fast, the way that technology, largely AI, is disrupting the future generation and the workforce opportunities, I just really think it's incredibly important that students are prepared for that. Mariah Presley (00:33) That's Chris Torline the education engineer at Trane who is leading the real world alignment between train, higher education, and the advanced technologies of the future. Dan Whisler (00:43) It isn't how much can we memorize and fill in blanks on a test, but again, how can we take all these bits and pieces around us and start putting them together? I like to help students understand the big picture. Mariah Presley (00:56) And this person, fondly known as “Dan the Man” Whisler by students in our programs, is Trane's fearless educator in residence and the troubadour of real world interdisciplinary learning for all students. But lest you start to think of this as some sort of Trane advertisement, we're gearing this conversation up for an industry insider look at why innovation in education is desperately needed for the workforce of the future and who needs to be at the table to make it happen. So today, I'm so excited to talk to these two humans at the front lines of this work for train. Dan, Chris, welcome to the show. Dan Whisler (01:36) Great to be here, thank you. Mariah Presley (01:39) So let's just get started with some brief introductions. We'll kick it over to you, Chris, to kick us off. What is your role with Trane and maybe why would it matter to someone in educational leadership? Chris Torline (01:48) My background, I'm an engineer, bachelor and master's degree architectural engineering. I've been doing energy conservation, design, analysis of buildings for the majority of my career. And my current role as an educational programs engineer, I get to work with lots of different educators with how do we up-level opportunities for students. So really I get to come in, I get to kind of be an industry aspect connector and come up with ideas and maybe it's technology or something else that the teacher or professor doesn't have immediate access to and come up with ways of how do we support students in this ever-changing world of the future generation. Mariah Presley (02:27) Thanks, Chris. Yeah, I kind of see your role as bringing industry into education. Whereas Dan, you've started on the education side and you get to bring education back to industry and vice versa. So tell us a little bit about your role. Dan Whisler (02:39) Thanks Mariah, yes you're correct. My background, high school science teacher for 33 years, heavily involved in STEM and energy education for the past 15 years or so. This is now my eighth year with Trane as educator in residence. And literally what that means is my role is to help build that bridge between industry and the classroom. For a lot of years, there was a focus on tests and what's the percentage, what's the score the students are getting. Now it's far more important, what can the students do with that information after they have it? And that's where I'm really enjoying this opportunity for industry and education work together. Mariah Presley (03:15) And so a huge piece of the podcast and what we talk about in every episode, it shows up very differently every time too, which is awesome, is how we can take some like small ideas when we align them in the right way or really creatively, they turn into these really big innovations. And you guys really have that frontline role in facilitating what innovation looks like, but we don't always dive so deeply into the real need for innovation in the first place, or why should we be looking at disrupting how learning happens. And I think you guys get some really unique perspectives of that based on your role. just from your experience, what do you see that's driving the need to do learning differently? Dan Whisler (03:56) The items I like to focus on learning as a process. It isn't how much can we memorize and fill in blanks on a test, but again, how can we take all these bits and pieces around us and start putting them together? I like to help students understand the big picture. I mentioned STEM and energy education earlier. There's energy standards all the way from fourth grade on up. So how do we introduce, create the awareness and exploration early and then build on the career opportunities so that students see the real world application of what they're learning. Mariah Presley (04:28) Yeah, thanks, Dan. And this is an area I really find fascinating with the team that we've built is that you bring that unique perspective of really how education works in the classroom aligned with the state. And one of the roles that I see like Chris and the rest of our team playing is working with you to understand, OK, what does that mean when it comes to relevance? So kind of jumping over, Chris, from your perspective. when we think about driving the need to do learning a little bit differently, and maybe why that's so relevant for the workforce piece, what are you seeing driving that? Chris Torline (05:01) I don't think it's been any secret that change has always occurred. Industries have changed and this is not the same workforce of our parents' generation. The pace of change that's happening so fast, the way that technology, largely AI, is disrupting the future generation and the workforce opportunities, I just really think it's incredibly important that students are prepared for that, that they understand what's out there, what's available, and that they're prepared, just like Dan said. That it's a process that they instill within themselves this process of, sometimes it's called a lifelong learner. Right now, as fast as industry is changing due to technology, et cetera, that students can be prepared for that and set themselves apart from their peers, put them in the optimal position for really exceptional careers. Mariah Presley (05:48) Yeah, and you both are kind of seated in seeing some of those real examples. Sometimes it helps to have like a concept of what that change could look like and whether it's in Trane or just in the energy industry in general. If you were going to share an example of one of those changes that's happening or the technology that's being disrupted, what does that look like and how could that impact a student coming into the workforce? Chris Torline (06:11) Yeah, I can give an example where back when my day, when I went through engineering, you got to declare your major as a freshman incoming, but you didn't get to even think about attending a class in your major until you've completed four semesters of calculus and two semesters of engineering physics, which is calculus based with these are some challenging subjects. And so if a student wasn't really committed or didn't know, then it's hard for them to persevere through that and continue their retention in the program. Mariah Presley (06:41) Retention is a topic we're hearing about more and more from our higher education collaborators. Students come into the system, but because they lack community or an understanding of how the time they're spending contributes to their future, they become disengaged with the learning journey. Chris Torline (06:58) We've been doing capstone projects. Traditionally, students would get that real world experience when they do kind of a final project or they're doing work within their major, which is later in their college career. But now we're able to give students opportunities of awareness in fields, industries that they may or may not be interested in a lot earlier on. Involved freshmen or it could be tours on campus and buildings and other discussions and presentations about energy or buildings or engineering or technology and data that could inspire them, that could also show them that, I'm not so interested in this, which I think is also a great thing. Mariah Presley (07:34) Yeah, I'm hearing from both of you to this theme around earlier. We'll come back to that Dan. Was there anything that you would add for this need to innovate? Dan Whisler (07:42) Absolutely. One of the things I've shared, by the time something is in a textbook, it's literally old news. And Chris mentioned the rate of change, and he's absolutely correct. And for an engagement piece, if it's a case study in a textbook, it's really not too much of a hook or excitement for the students. But when we can make the real world relevance, when we can connect the students to the data, and that's literally what we're doing with Trane, using the building as a living learning lab. Mariah Presley (08:10) And this approach has caught fire in a big way because not only is the project real work that they might see in the industry, but now students have a sense of agency and ownership. We found that the experiential linchpin is giving them the chance to actually affect change and uplift purpose in the environment around them. Dan Whisler (08:32) When the students are able to see that connection, whether it's the utility bills, the 15 minute interval data, and make the connections to their district calendar, what events are taking place, when and how and why are we using energy, that's when it becomes exciting for the students. Mariah Presley (08:47) Yeah, I would agree. It's this world of we need to also do more. So it's like what we've got, that foundation, and then some. And a lot of that is due to the pace of change, to this kind of ever changing. What used to take 10 years is now taking 10 minutes, it feels like, in a lot of situations. So this idea of, what if one way to get in front of that was just getting in front of students earlier with some of these conversations and concepts and socializing it through their entire learning experience so that by the time they get to that point where they're going to have to adapt to the change, they've sort of been immersed in it throughout that entirety of their experience. Having worked with schools across the nation on some of these programs, what stands out to you specifically as far as like those schools that are really succeeding, what are some of like the attitudes or the trends or the things that you're noticing make them so successful? Dan Whisler (09:39) I would share Chris mentioned it earlier, lifelong learning. The teachers are really excelling in this program. To me, that's one of the most important lessons we can model for our students is the interest, the curiosity to continue learning and the teachers that are leading. That's exactly what they're doing. It's a willingness and that's where my role is really important to help. I provide support. What can I do to continue to help you learn and make this user friendly in the classroom? Chris Torline (10:08) Where I see this really being effective is when you have teachers and administrators. Everybody in education wants the best for the students, but the success that we see are these people that really have this desire. They're willing to take on something new. I think we all can have the tendency to kind of be creatures of habit. Maybe the class I taught last semester went really well, right? But there's always ways to up-level and industry is changing and technology changes. And so if we can embrace that, it's the educators that work with us that say, hey, how could I do this? How could I implement this in my classroom? How could I up-level some aspect of this for the benefit of the students where we really have success? Mariah Presley (10:46) Yeah, I really appreciate that. think of the term of upleveling a lot in what we do from the business side. And I'm often like listening to podcasts on what really makes organizations like ours competitive. And so you always hear this phrase of upleveling and like part of what that looks like is speed to market and who can get in front of these trends faster. And so if I take that and flip it from what I'm hearing you guys say, it's kind of like speed to relevance for students and what's teachers or leaders of teachers are open enough to adjust to meet that speed of relevance. Because even if the class was successful last semester, maybe next semester with how quickly relevance is changing, it's going to have to be tweaked. And are we deploying that mindset so that education and industry can work together toward what is competitive for the next generation? Chris Torline (11:35) Exactly. Dan Whisler (11:36) Related to that, Beloit was one of our pilot programs of the BTU crew. you talk about attitude, attitude and leadership have made a huge difference in this district. First of all, shout out Jeff Travis and Casey Seifert, Superintendent Principal. Casey was involved in an innovation podcast, one of earlier episodes. But the very first time that I met with the teachers, it was at 1 p.m. in the afternoon on a school day. The administrators made it a priority and said, hey, this is important for going to the teachers release time to meet with Dan. It wasn't a 345 meeting before you go home. That number one, again, it sent a message to the teachers, hey, this is something we really want you to take a serious look at. And I remember Christie Fouts, who's a rock star STEM teacher in Beloit, came in with a smile that afternoon and kind of laughed and said, okay, Dan, we said yes. Now tell us just exactly what is it we said yes to. So that was again a willingness to say, hey, tell me more. Let's see how we can make this work for our students. Mariah Presley (12:36) Yeah, I really appreciate that. think I've heard the leadership side and we've talked a little bit about the teacher side. I know I've learned from both of you, it takes a village. So are there any other people, stakeholders, systems that you've seen that when they all come together, really make these kinds of ideas a success? Chris Torline (12:56) It's the entire administration. If the educator or the professor is supported and feels supported and the provost and the superintendent of the schools and the president of the university are all on board and they say, hey, this aligns with who we want to be and what we want to offer students. Well, then that educator or that professor has the ability to go out and do great things. And maybe they need financial or training or some other support to do that, then they can do that with confidence and be commended for that. And ideally, they'd be an example for their peers to do more of it. Dan Whisler (13:28) On a related note, yes, Chris, I agree there. Adam Krug, also featured in one of earlier podcasts, has been doing an outstanding job of integrating industry certifications, data analytics specifically into his classes. Principal at Smokey Valley, Scott Lee, actually took the time and went through and completed the CTE, the data analytics certification. before the students ever started. Again, an example of leadership. So that leadership makes a tremendous difference as we're implementing new programs. Mariah Presley (14:01) Yeah, I think one of the things we see in all of our most successful partnerships, the ones that I would say we're actually hiring from or we're working intentionally to bridge almost always have the executive team aligned with your teacher champions, with those people who have attitudes and openness to innovation or changing education to align with relevance. And so that's really exciting to me. I know that the two of you have often focused on specific segments within education, Dan having a little more focus on K-12 and Chris a little bit more focus on higher ed. How do you see those two worlds colliding or what role do they play in working together alongside this industry partnership in the future to moving some of this work forward? Chris Torline (14:49) I think number one, it's awareness that we give students awareness of careers and the skills that might be out there. And so that starts young, right? We talked about not reaching students before the sixth grade so that they don't rule themselves out of a STEM career, which can be common for females, especially if we instill them young, hey, you can do anything in this world. Let's check it out. Let's give you opportunities to what's out there because honestly, a lot of times they just don't know why, like how would a young person in grade school, middle school, how would they know what's out there? They don't have that experience. And so if we can help bridge that gap through experiences, through some training, through some skill development with technology, et cetera, that's part of the future workforce, they can give it a try and then connect them with relevant programs, whether that's a two year after high school or a four year after high school, then we can really set those students up for a rewarding career. Dan Whisler (15:43) And I agree with what Chris is sharing there. Case in point, mentioned Christie Fouts earlier and what she's doing under STEM program. She had a team of young ladies recently, I think it two years ago now, in the KidWind Challenge, which is kind of an energy Olympics. These young ladies set a new state record in Kansas, beat all the previous high school and middle school teams. So, these young ladies see themselves as engineers. They were problem solving. They were thinking critically. They were working together. And those kinds of opportunities enable them to picture, okay, what are the possibilities as I get older? What are the career paths that I'm suited for? And yes, these CT and STEM careers are absolutely careers for our young ladies. It's not just for the guys. Chris Torline (16:27) I was asked to present to an HVAC two-year program to students there because the instructor was aware that the students are aware of some of the entry-level positions associated with HVAC technicians, but he wanted to expand their awareness about what else is possible if they continue. There's bigger machinery, chillers and rooftop units, et cetera, that they can work on, things that would be more applicable to what we might hire for training as well as building controls and lots of technology there. And he said, hey, can you help them come broaden their horizon and explain to them what's even out there? And these students are already enrolled in a two-year program for HVAC technicians. Mariah Presley (17:08) So throughout the duration of us building this team and really having a privilege of focus with resourcing at Trane around making these partnerships work and work really well for the student of the future. We've gotten a lot of really cool feedback from people around taking this as a model to other industries and really kind of helping encourage this change from an industry perspective. And since the two of you really have like a front and center purview of what that looks like with Education Partner. I'd be curious of what kind of advice you might give to our educational partners on choosing industry partners versus say like an industry vendor and really what the difference is or what that means to you. Chris Torline (17:53) First, I'll say that what I've found in doing this in this role the last several years is there's a lot of people that want to support students. Like I think all of us have in our hearts to kind of support the next generation. But a true industry partner really is willing to kind of prioritize that in a certain way. They have a desire to be innovative and offer ideas to support the school or university. And so, they're kind of willing to prioritize that in a certain way. And that could be a challenge for certain businesses if it's not directly related to their bottom line, that they would maybe need to change some internal structures to be able to do that. And so if you have a true partner, they're listening and they're bringing ideas and helping execute some things, bringing some experience into the classroom, that's going to be an opportunity for the school to take that model in some of that collaboration, some of those discussions, and then go talk with their other industry partners in different industries, different career fields that will allow them to kind of expand and replicate the success you may be having in one place that you could do with other partners. And we've seen that happen. Dan Whisler (18:56) As I got started with Trane, I was invited to be part of the Governor's Council on Education here in Kansas. Several of the pillars that we operated around, number one, business and industry at the forefront. What skills are needed in the workplace? Number two, equity schools of all sizes, students from all social and economic backgrounds. How do we support students in all of these situations? Dr. Cindy Lane was co-chair on the Governor's Council and she shared with me on several different occasions of how other industries should model what Trane has done in industry and education working together. And I will say thank you to Chris Torline. I've had a chance now eight years. Chris has been my mentor as I started on this along with Kevin Ward. Mariah Presley (19:39) Kevin Ward and Chris Torline were part of what I like to describe as the OGs, or the original geniuses, that launched Trane's industry and educational programming concept more than a decade ago with the support of educational leaders in the state of Kansas, like Dr. Cindy Lane, the former chair of the Governor's Council on Education. Dan Whisler (19:59) And several different times I would visit with them and say, hey, how would you like for me to do this? And they would flip it around and they say, no, you have the education background. That's why we brought you on the team. How do you think we should do this? And they gave me the freedom and the flexibility and even more the responsibility of saying, how can industry and education work together, support teachers in the classroom, and most importantly, bring these opportunities to students? Mariah Presley (20:27) Yeah, I really appreciate that about you, Dan, because I do think that you've been like the ultimate translator of all things education for when we have ideas around relevance, what does it actually mean? It's almost like application for the industry, right? What does it actually mean to apply that nugget of relevance in this classroom experience or within standards and those things that we know our educators have to still operate within? And so I do think that adds just kind of a different level of understanding and support to the team and the role that we play. then Chris's experience being on the industry side, having a line of sight into like, what is technology and how is it changing and how is that affecting train and the business that we do every day? It's really kind of been like the ultimate partnership of bringing those two worlds together in a way that makes it practical for both sides of that partnership. And so I just thank you guys very much for the work that you do every day. And I would be interested in our last two minutes, like, what are you excited about when you think about industry and educational partnerships and innovation? What really gets you excited? Chris Torline (21:35) I'm excited to see what's next. This pace of change with technology, how it's changing industry, and now how it's changing education, maybe forcing education to change is a better way to describe it. Like, how do we change? How do we give students the next opportunity? I've got a couple of kids in the college age level in their careers. And so as I think about what's next for them when they start to enter the workforce, it's the same thing I get excited about for all students. Mariah Presley (22:04) Thanks, Dan, what about you? Dan Whisler (22:06) For me, what I really enjoy is seeing what the students are doing through the program. We were working with Christie Fouts. It was a webinar. We had a couple of students in on the webinar. And I remember a young man named Chris, eighth grader, and he's pulling up their building analytics, sharing it online, and they have an educational solar array that was put in. And Chris pulls up the data and says, you can see this is just an educational display, switches over to the building. And he said, because we aren't near meeting the building load, obviously it's education. And a question was asked, well Chris, it's not so obvious to me, how can you see that? And I mean, he goes straight to the numbers. Our solar array is producing three kilowatts, the building’s using 69. I wasn't talking like that in eighth grade, I guarantee. And for students, again, that's the connection when it's their own data, they can walk outside, they can see it, they can open the door to the control room. Now we're really starting to understand that real world application. Mariah Presley (23:04) Yeah, I would agree with that. think back to a program we did with the Kansas State School for the Blind and leveraging some of the relationship and the work we've done with them for a long time and had this group of young women doing kind of a makers competition. And at the end of it, one of the girls on the team looked at me and was like, my gosh, does this mean I could actually work with a company like Trane? That like someone like me could really work there? And so that's what I look forward to. I think it's really special when you get to be a part of that aha moment for students that allows them to see themselves as something different. Thank you guys for the work that you do. Dan Whisler (23:42) I was a coach for 33 years. I love a team effort and to me that's what we see when students and teachers and industry are all working together, great things happen. Mariah Presley (23:51) And that's a wrap. As Dan Whistler always tells me, innovation has a funny way of yielding even more innovation. I personally can't wait to see how the pace of change continues to innovate the future of work. But I'm even more excited to see how industry and education rise to the challenges ahead and create a more sustainable future for our students, educators, and the industry. Thank you for listening to this mid-season special episode of This Educational Life, a podcast by Trane. To hear more stories of innovation from educational heroes around the nation, tune in at www.trane.com/ThisEducationalLife or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time.