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Welcome back to Teaching the Unteachables where we dive into teaching and learning

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methodologies for professionals like you. This episode brought to you by Bell &

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Gossett, a Xylem brand and the Little Red Schoolhouse. Learn more about the Little

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Red Schoolhouse at xylem.com. Alright everyone thank you for joining

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Did You Know? the Esco HVAC podcast. So today we're spending some time with Bill

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Fisher from Bell & Gossett, a Xylem brand. How are you doing sir? I'm doing quite

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well. How about yourself? I'm doing great. You know we keep talking about all of

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these new opportunities for training and education because every industry is

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exploding with technology. There's a man for technology. You know we were talking

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about the Little Red Schoolhouse and some of the amazing training that we have at

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the Little Red Schoolhouse, but even you are starting to see that explosion of

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people looking for training and as educators and trainers sometimes we

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can't keep up with all of the demand. Absolutely not and we saw you know really

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that the audience was there. We've been offering classes at the Little Red

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Schoolhouse just outside of Chicago since 1954, but COVID a few years back

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was the first time we had to get creative and say how else can we get this

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information out that isn't just webinars or something a little less engaging

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right and I think it opened our eyes to the fact that people are always eager to

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dive in and access that content on demand. You know we're offering over I

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think 15 different week-long classes at the schoolhouse this year, but we know

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that's not enough to get out to all the folks in the industry we want to connect

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with. We're excited to be offering a lot more on what we're calling the

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online Little Red Schoolhouse now and making that platform a lot more

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universally available. So let's talk about the Little Red Schoolhouse and

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both the physical and the virtual now because a lot of people don't know I

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even myself didn't know about the Little Red Schoolhouse until about a year or so

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ago and Howard Weiss and I were talking about he's like you've never been to the

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Little Red Schoolhouse I was like tell me more about this I was like I have no

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idea what like what was the conception of this and how did it all begin? Yeah it

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started you know back in the 50s Gil Carlson was a really innovative and

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really pioneering engineer when it came to the idea of hydronics and how to

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properly engineer systems to take advantage of products that sure

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Bell & Gossett makes from a pumping perspective as well as valves and

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fittings from other brands like McDonald and Miller but you know trying to

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educate the industry about not just how to use those products or what those

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features and benefits are the things that we all get I think a little sick of

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hearing from a sales pitch right well we care a lot less about that at the

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schoolhouse and more if I'm a systems engineer or design engineer even

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mechanical contractor trying to figure out how to deliver a really efficient

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source of heating or cooling to a new commercial building what's the best way

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to design that and you know we found that getting folks in and being able to

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have conversations with those design engineers early on and say how would you

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best design this system to make it the most efficient you know for your client

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at the end of the day and I think that conversations only expanded lately when

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we talk about decarbonization so I know there's been a lot of renewed

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interest in hydraulics on that front and and certainly we feel like we've been

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you know preaching that message for quite a long time and are excited to

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keep sharing you know what we've been offering at the schoolhouse with new

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generations of engineers to come yeah so we're talking you know 70,000 plus

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engineers and contractors and technicians that have came through the

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programs over the years to be able to learn how to do things better in the

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hydronic side of things and you know there are times where even our

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residential contractors you know will get into geothermal we'll get into

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circulating of water we'll get into you know hot water heating systems and in

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the past that's been somewhat of a niche market for residential and that's

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changing and that's going to change I personally think that the movement of

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water and glycol and water in residential applications are going to

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explode in the next few years because we're going to start moving to

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monoblock heat pumps air to water heating and cooling systems that are

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going to start replacing our traditional split systems because now we have the

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ability to use high-efficiency refrigerants like co2 and r290 purified

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propane to build singular monoblock heat pump systems that sit outside of the

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structure so it eliminates all of our internal concerns that we have for

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flammability of some of these lower GWP refrigerants so I do believe we're going

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to see a huge increase in the education demand from the residential and light

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commercial sector over these next couple years and that's really you but I'd

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completely agree you know whether it was my first trip to the schoolhouse many

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years ago now and we often have a mix of students in person it is you know

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mechanical contractors as well as field service technicians they are intermingling

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with the design engineers that was a really great conversation to hear from

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both sides of the coin so to speak hey you know even those folks going out and

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issuing a no heat call late at night their most favorite thing to do right

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helping them to understand how that system is really all working together

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you know as inspiring to see them kind of walk away feeling more empowered to

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do better service work out in the field knowing how all the components actually

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fit together yeah yeah that's a that's a big deal because when we start talking

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about you know circulating water there's other dynamics now we're talking fluid

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dynamics that we need to understand not just air dynamics absolutely yeah and

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yeah there's a lot of things that Balangosta offers to make that easier

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even for the non-engineer tools that many folks it's so funny to me have told

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me you know mention certain things about my job day to day but if I mentioned

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the Balangosta system sizer which is a physical kind of rule of thumb

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calculator of hey how big should your piping be depending on how many BTUs

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you're looking to bring through it's funny to me how many people I've met

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from different firms engineering and otherwise you say oh the system sizer

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sure yeah that's that's a tool that ever those rules of thumb for that non-engineer

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are a really big part of our curriculum you know and again whether it's in

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person at the schoolhouse which we've talked about more but we're really

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excited when have even watched some new interactive and e-learning modules on the

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online Little Red Schoolhouse in recent months to make access to that education

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easier you know more on demand and even as a place for folks to feel like they

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can get comfortable with those topics whether they're able to come to the

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schoolhouse in Chicago or not yeah we see that as a huge asset for our

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educational programs you know I can see sending an educator right over to the

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Little Red Schoolhouse to learn the hands-on but we can't send every

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student into a program but what we can do when we're talking about hydronics

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and we're talking about heating systems in the classroom we can now have a

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well-prepared educator that can go by the way you all have homework tonight

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you're gonna go do this e-learning course so that you can get comfortable

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with this topic and then tomorrow in class we're all gonna sit down and I'm

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gonna do a deeper dive of what all this means and what it looks like and so now

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we're using two-fold opportunities for education that intimate deep hands-on

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experience that an educator truly needs then we also have the interactive side

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that is not just prep but it could also be assignments for school I mean we can

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utilize this as homework opportunities and assignments you know our programs

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are having more of a demand on the content that needs to be taught but the

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programs aren't getting longer and so the educators are typically faced with

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well what do I remove from my curriculum so that I can add this and we go whoa

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whoa whoa no that that's not the goal the goal here is to actually have some

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assignments that they can do at home our students are going to be at home on

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their phones for six to eight hours a night a day really oh absolutely and

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it's it is so true and we see it on the data side in terms of what makes really

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impactful and effective online training you know as I said in those early days

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of code everyone I think dumped on me hey let's have a lot of webinars bandwagon

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and there is a burnout that you can get there there's a lack of engagement

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required from the learner and personally as a someone who's learned a lot about

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this this industry and other parts of what's I'll does in the last ten years

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of my career I don't know that that's really the most effective way to learn

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remotely no I think it's a very expedient way and thus why it became

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kind of more popular but my background ultimately is then educational design

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and curriculum design so we're trying to bring those best practices from the

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training industry back and reinvigorate that in the schoolhouse side make sure

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we're using thoughtful and structural design principles to make the training

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shorter easier to consume easier to walk away with something really actionable

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right away instead of saying I sat through that webinar but I'm not really

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sure what I learned I heard a lot but I didn't receive and retain a lot yeah and

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it's difficult I mean I face that every week on our live show I'll try to bring

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different educators and do topics and I keep asking all right we got to do more

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than PowerPoint presentations can I come to your facility can we shoot some video

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can I do some actual hands-on demonstration are things that I can do

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in here so that we can even use some of that content later to pull into either

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learning modules as little bits and pieces of that hands-on so in today's

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educational realm it's not as black and white and linear as it once was a decade

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or two ago it's no I see that being a challenge somewhat for the industry in

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some ways because those who have been through those types of programs before

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feel that it is the only way to learn hey this is what I had to do 30 years ago

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you've got to get down in the trenches and sit through six weeks of lectures

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again until you're even ready to hear about the next stage and I don't think

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that's gonna be an appealing way to draw in new people to the industry and it's

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not gonna engage with today's younger audience no absolutely not I do a class

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on the five generations of learners where I go over starting with alpha and

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going through you know the five generations you know alpha is the Y X

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and I'll even sometimes get into our boomers and a little bit deeper into

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traditionalists but talking about how evolution of education has been in the

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last 60 70 years a lot of people don't realize that in the 1990s most of our K

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through 12 programs went from a linear design into a modular based design so

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that students can do them in pieces and they can do a component in the classroom

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they can do a component at home they can do virtual classes they can do

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augmented reality classes and they are all a part of a curriculum and so when

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Kovac happened that changed everyone everyone had to go what do we do now is

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anyone doing anything and we'd actually already gotten there in many other

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curriculums but a lot of the trades hadn't made that shift yet and now that

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we have had that experience we have manufacturers like asylum through

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bell and gossip looking at their products going well why don't we just

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redeliver our content in a different way so they can be received by other

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learners and that's exactly what you're doing yeah absolutely and you know a lot

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of the content that we do have available today is also available for CEU

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continuing education unit hours so those modules are pretty clearly identified

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there's a simple filter to say hey show me what's CEU eligible on the site yeah

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you can see the number of hours you're gonna get from the program and it's

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really seamless tool once you work through either interactive or webinar

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based content we are gonna ask a little more of you and make sure you were you

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know taking something away from it so it will be a quiz aspect and then a

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certificate that you can take and download as well so let's talk about

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some of the classes that are offered physically at the little red school

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house and some of the classes that are offered virtually on the online virtual

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yeah absolutely so in person at the schoolhouse we offer four to five

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standard classes today you can read about those in a lot more detail at our

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website that's bellgossip.com or if you go to xylem.com and choose bell

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and gossip from our brands there's a full tab dedicated to education and

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training where you can see our course curriculum our materials and access over

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to the online little red schoolhouse that we've been chatting about today some

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of the core classes we offer and especially for that non-engineer we

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offer a class every quarter called modern hydronic basics and it is designed

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to introduce the fundamental principles of a hydronic system design what are the

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pieces you need to consider how to all of these elements or components you know

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factor in what are some of the basic fluid dynamics to keep in mind like

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friction loss hey I'm gonna be pumping all of this fluid water glycol mixture

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through a pretty robust system do I have a strong enough pump to really do that

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how do I even pick a pump that will do that correctly rather than just picking

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whatever was on the shelf at my distributor right so that'll be I think

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for anyone regardless of your level of experience such a great class to start

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with and we have a lot of equivalents to that class available on the online

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little red schoolhouse as well whether it's centrifugal pump fundamentals hey

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how do these pumps even actually work yeah I think so many of us are used to

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seeing pumps in you know everyday things like my pets water fountain that you

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don't even stop to think you know how those are actually engineered or

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designed and it's been fascinating to me to see you know when run well how

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long that equipment can last and when well maintained right it's such a aspect

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of sustainability that we don't talk about a lot in in product design right

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of but I know on a personal level I've had to replace my outdoor HVAC condenser

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quite a number of times that I know my friends who have more of a heat bait

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heat pump based system I've gotten on it by in a lot less maintenance yeah so

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it's truly understanding the products that we're installing yeah fundamentally

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yeah truly and we also see that there are classes on a traveling classroom

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program or you're doing remote classrooms I assume with distributors

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and with educational facilities tell me a little bit more about that yeah

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absolutely so we are traveling little red schoolhouse is a great partnership

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that we have with our rep partners all across the US try to offer at least 10

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to 12 of the seminars regionally you know so even those who aren't able to

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visit the schoolhouse have that opportunity to hear us come and speak

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that's usually a more condensed or shorter session it might cover the same

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modern hydronic principles but we also cover classes on design and application

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of commercial heating systems of large chilled water systems and really what

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makes sense regionally you know we're gonna be talking a lot more about steam

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system design in the Northeast compared to you know the southwest for example

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though there's still steam that you're gonna find out there whether it's

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hospital complex or you know something else it's it's always funny to me you

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know that that being such an old technology still how important it is for

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so many industries as well yeah that's so true and a lot of our educators when

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they're coming into a program they may be asked to introduce these design

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principles into the classroom and they may have never encountered them in the

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field and so that's the importance of knowing where the resources are knowing

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how to connect to the right training facilities and opportunities that's why

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I wanted to have this discussion so as an educator we encourage you to reach

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out learn more about the little red schoolhouse learn about the hands-on

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opportunities learn about the virtual opportunities that you can utilize in

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the classroom as well and so once again Bill where we're gonna find more

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information about the little red schoolhouse sure head on over to

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bellgossett.com or xylem.com and choose Bell and Gossett from our brands tab and

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on your education and training you'll find a whole host of resources whether

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it's signing up for our in-person class registering for the online little red

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schoolhouse or even accessing our really rich library of technical manuals that

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have a lot of those rules of thumb great resources there as well just to take

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back to your organizations or as you said potentially pulled into some other

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curriculums as well excellent Bill Fisher from Bell and Gossett as island

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brand I appreciate you hanging out with us today and giving us some further

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educational resources yeah happy to do it and hope to host you up at Morton

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Grove in the schoolhouse one day soon I am looking forward to a road trip on

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that one okay thank you sir thank you