Annual Report 2012

2012 Annual Report PUTTING ENERGY INTO EDUCATION

www.NEED.org

The mission of The NEED Project is to promote an energy conscious and educated society by creating effective networks of students, educators, business, government, and community leaders to design and deliver objective, multi-sided energy education programs. NEED works with energy companies, agencies, and organizations to bring balanced energy programs to the nation’s schools with a focus on strong teacher professional development, timely and balanced curriculum materials, signature program capabilities, and turn-key program management.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

NEED National Staff NEED Board of Directors Message from the Executive Director Message from the Chairman Financial Statements

Table of Contents

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YOUTH AWARDS FOR ENERGY ACHIEVEMENT Youth Awards Review Panel Youth Awards Sponsors Student Leader of the Year Distinguished Service Awards State Program of the Year Regional Program of the Year Primary Level School of the Year Elementary Level Schools of the Year Junior Level Schools of the Year Senior Level School of the Year

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Special Project of the Year Primary Level Rookie School of the Year Elementary Level Rookie School of the Year Junior Level Rookie School of the Year Senior Level Rookie School of the Year

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STATE AND REGIONAL PROGRAMS State & Regional Contacts Alabama California Coloroda Connecticut Florida Georgia Illinois Kentucky Louisiana Maine Massachusetts Michigan Nebraska Nevada North Carolina Ohio Rhode Island Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Wisconsin Sponsors & Partners

32 33 34 35 37 38 38 40 41 43 48 48 49 52 53 53 54 59 62 64 67 68 69 69 70

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THIS IS NEED 2012 Teacher Advisory Board

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NEED National Staff Mary Spruill Executive Director

Vernon Kimball Curriculum and Training Associate

Barry Scott State Program Director, California

Amy Constant Program Associate

Rebecca Lamb Program Director

Tyler Cvitkovic Newsletter Contributor

Barbara Lazar Newsletter Contributor

Aneta Shuttlesworth Manager, Accounting and OfďŹ ce Administration

Cindy Foster NEED Distribution Center

Tim Meko Advisor, Creative Design

Rick Hall NEED Distribution Center

Wendi Moss Program and Training Coordinator

Tom Spencer Advisor, Engineering, Career and Technical Education

Melanie Harper Program Associate

Annie Rasor Curriculum Associate

Bonny Spruill NEED Distribution Center

Emily Hawbaker Curriculum Director

Karen Reagor Regional Director, Southeast

Caryn Turrel Curriculum and Training Associate

Johnna Hetrick Creative Director

Todd Rogers Regional Director, Northeast

Cindy Welchko Curriculum Associate

David Keene General Counsel

Pamela Seader Program Coordinator

Melissa Spencer NEED Distribution Center

The students love these hands-on activities and so do I. ~Elementary School Teacher, New Mexico

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2012 NEED Annual Report

NEED Board of Directors Officers Diane Lear, National Hydropower Association, Chairman Wendy Wiedenbeck, Encana, Vice Chairman John Weiner, U.S. Energy Information Administration (ret.), Secretary/Treasurer (outgoing 5/12) Randall Luthi, National Ocean Industries Association, Treasurer (incoming 5/12) Kristy Monk, American Electric Power, Secretary (incoming 5/12)

Members Constance Beatty, Kennedy Middle Grade School, Kankakee, IL (NEED Teacher Advisory Board Representative) Guy Caruso, U.S. Energy Information Administration (ret.), Center for Strategic and International Studies Philip Cochrane, BP (outgoing 5/12) Kristi DesJarlais, ConocoPhillips Margaret Downey, Barnstable County, MA/Cape Light Compact Linda Lung, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Randall Luthi, National Ocean Industries Association Kate Marks, National Association of State Energy Officials Kristy Monk, American Electric Power Michael Perna, ConEdison Solutions (incoming 5/12) Barry Russell, Independent Petroleum Association of America

Honorary Board Members and Former Chairmen Paula Barnett, BP Leslie Eden, PennWell Tom Fry, National Ocean Industries Association (ret.)

Kevin Galligan, Cape Light Compact Paul Loeffelman, American Electric Power Maurice Royster, Equitable Resources Linda Silinsky, Schlumberger Oilfield Services (ret.)

Bob Stewart, National Ocean Industries Association (ret.)

Henry Sullivan, American Electric Power (ret.)

Richard Zuercher, Dominion

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Message from the Executive Director What an exciting school year! The 2011-2012 school year brought many opportunities to NEED and our teachers, students and partners. NEED expanded and added additional capabilities and offerings to an already extensive portfolio of training and curriculum. In our efforts to make energy easy to integrate into every classroom, NEED launched its new Energy Geography section – with energy maps available for use in student research, with interactive white boards and more. Check out the very exciting Energy in Virginia map created in partnership with the Science Museum of Virginia and Dominion. It is available on our website and also in print.

We also took this year as an opportunity to expand our communication to our network, with frequent publication of Energy Exchange and Career Currents. With those two publications now arriving in the hands of over 35,000 individuals and also delivered via the web, NEED is able to more frequently share curriculum, career pathways, and opportunities with our network. We’ve enjoyed hearing from our network on Facebook and seeing our tweets on Twitter used in both the education and energy sectors. NEED’s success is about our network and connections between our students, teachers, sponsors and partners. It is these connections that make the organization strong and relevant to education and energy.

I am lucky to have spent several days this spring visiting our state level Youth Awards programs, seeing our students being recognized for their hard work and recognizing the extraordinarily dedicated educators who support NEED programming in the classroom and in afterschool programs. From a huge ballroom at The Ohio State University for the Ohio Energy Project’s awards to the state Capitol Buildings in Boston, MA and Providence, RI, it has been an extraordinary spring seeing the excitement and energy generated as students teach themselves and their communities about energy. NEED’s Kids Teaching Kids philosophy remains strong.

As an organization, we were fortunate to have several programs that benefitted from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. In Arkansas and Kentucky, NEED programs grew to reach hundreds of teachers and to provide hands-on energy equipment and curriculum in the classroom. Working with State Energy Offices from coast to coast and beyond, NEED programs are often delivered as part of the State Energy Program. These programs include teacher training, classroom curriculum, student STEM experiences, and School Energy Management Training for school district personnel. We are proud to have the support of the National Association of State Energy Officials and the state energy offices to provide NEED programs to teachers and students across the country.

In 2011-2012 we also added new signature programs to the NEED network from a new partnership with Hawaii Energy to provide energy education to teachers and students in Hawaii to new training opportunities with Tri-State Generation and Transmission serving Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Our continued long-term partnerships with Dominion, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, NSTAR, Pacific Gas & Electric, and ComEd bring NEED programs to over 5,000 teachers annually. That’s a substantial investment in energy education and teacher training.

I am grateful and NEED is grateful for the hard work and dedication of our staff, teachers, partners, and Board Members. These individuals raise the level of discussion about energy in our nation’s classrooms and make a difference each day. We evaluate and we see the data – NEED teaches kids and their families about energy. NEED training increases teacher knowledge about energy. We’re all learning and we’re all teaching. All the time.

I want to take a moment and thank two very special people who have made a significant impact on NEED. As NEED’s Treasurer and Secretary since 2008, John Weiner provided the guidance, the patience, and the tireless energy to make NEED stronger in every way. John’s consistent engagement made NEED more efficient, lifted up teachers and students, and always brought humor to every NEED event. He and his wife Judy are regular attendees at NEED events and we know that will not change even though his board service has ended. Also leaving NEED’s Board of Directors this year is Phil Cochrane who has supported NEED from great distances in California and Alaska and whose advice and guidance was always helpful and insightful. Phil’s support has provided numerous opportunities to Alaskan teachers and students and all of us at NEED are grateful to him for his steadfast support.

NEED continues to do all we can with the resources given to us. We consistently improve our efficiency and leverage our financial, human, and program resources to provide the best possible energy education experience possible. We are grateful to all of those who support our efforts each day. To those who have not yet begun a partnership with NEED, we simply say, “What better time than NOW?” With many thanks,

Mary E. Spruill, The NEED Project Executive Director

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2012 NEED Annual Report

Message from the Chairman I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year as Chairman of NEED. It is a great honor and privilege to work with my fellow board members and the teachers and students that make NEED the success it is. As we begin the 2012-2013 NEED year, it is a good time to reflect on the organization’s accomplishments. Throughout this past year, we have heard about success after success from NEED’s sponsors and friends. We have reviewed evaluations that showcase NEED’s ability to teach students and teachers about energy and to have a strong and lasting impact on teaching and learning. I have enjoyed our work with NEED’s teachers, students, sponsors and partners as we design and deliver high quality energy education programs to schools across the United States and around the globe. The teachers, students, sponsors and partners who bring time, resources, commitment, and energy to NEED’s programming are the foundation of a growing, dynamic NEED network.

Hearing about our work and its impact in the classroom means a great deal to me and to NEED staff. As a member of the Hydropower Research Foundation (HRF), and Director of Member Services for the National Hydropower Association (NHA), I have witnessed firsthand the quality curriculum development and training that the NEED Staff develops, designs, and delivers to schools. All of us at HRF and NHA are honored to renew our financial commitment to NEED and its hydropower curriculum and training this year. We know learning about energy is great fun in the classroom – because we’ve seen the curriculum in action.

Our teachers, students, and partners continue to share that the NEED staff is creative, flexible, and deeply committed to a balanced energy message. Their commitment to delivering the highest quality curriculum and hands-on experiments is the foundation of NEED’s success. The same holds true for our board members. Our board members come from many different areas of energy and bring unique perspectives to our role in the governance of NEED. When we are together, the discussion is always about how we make what is great even greater, how to take all that we have learned and create even more opportunities for energy education in schools, in afterschool programs, and in the local community. This board knows that it takes a diverse energy generation mix to meet our nation’s energy needs.

NEED’s network works well and works well together. At our April board meeting, NEED bid farewell to our long-time Secretary and Treasurer John Weiner. John served on the NEED board with distinction, grace, and dedication. He guided NEED through a period of significant growth and is a steadfast listener and advisor. Though no longer serving on the board, he will continue as part of the NEED family forever. We also bid farewell to Phil Cochrane as he ends his term on the board. Phil’s long-time and long-distance support of NEED from his home base in Anchorage, Alaska made for many early morning phone calls and long flights for him. He is a believer in NEED’s success and has brought a discerning eye to many of NEED’s efforts. My fellow board members join me in thanking Phil and John for their hard work and commitment and know that they will continue to be strong supporters of the organization.

The companies, agencies, and organizations that support NEED each year make a difference in so many ways.

Teachers receive training, students receive up-to-date, engaging hands-on energy equipment and curriculum, schools reduce energy use through energy efficiency initiatives, families learn how to use energy more wisely, and our partners have the opportunity to make an investment that has a lasting impact. Together, we all make a difference. As we celebrate the achievements of our teachers and students at the 32nd Annual NEED Youth Awards, let me say THANK YOU to the teachers, students, parents, and sponsors that make NEED successful.

Diane Lear, National Hydropower Association Chairman

www.NEED.org

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Financial Statements

THE NATIONAL ENERGY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROJECT STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2011 INCOME Grants and Contributions

$6,347,631

Curriculum and Kit Sales

481,293

Conference and Youth Awards

244,706

In-Kind Contributions

20,362

Interest Income

21,297

Other Income

34,641

Total Revenues

7,149,930

EXPENSES Program expenses Workshops and Conferences

2,970,607

Kits and Materials

1,500,182

Program Administration

847,107

Curriculum Development

621,139

Youth Awards Program

432,272

Training Conferences

332,376

Program Development Total Program Expenses

101,113 6,804,796

Support Services General and Administrative Fundraising Total Supporting Services Total Expenses INCREASE IN NET ASSETS Net Assets, Beginning of Year NET ASSETS, END OF THE YEAR

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2012 NEED Annual Report

212,876 67,840 280,716 7,085,512 64,418 3,186,608 $3,251,026

THE NATIONAL ENERGY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROJECT STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION DECEMBER 31, 2011 ASSETS Cash and Cash Equivalents CertiďŹ cates of Deposits

$1,910,408 $396,472

Grants and Contributions Receivable

893,734

Inventory

264,054

Property and Equipment, net Deposits Total Assets

2,189 $3,466,857

LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS Liabilities Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses

$202,239

Refundable Advances Deferred Rent Total Liabilities Net Assets Total Liabilities and Net Assets

13,592 215,831 3,251,026 $3,466,857

www.NEED.org

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This is NEED 2012

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ore than 30 years ago, The NEED Project began as a one-day celebration of energy education when National Energy Education Day was recognized by a Joint Congressional Resolution.

In the same year, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation stressing the need for comprehensive energy education in our schools, a reduction of our dependence of fossil fuels, and increasing use of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. Since its founding, NEED has kept its Kids Teaching Kids philosophy as a fundamental principle of NEED programming – encouraging students to explore, experiment and engage, and encouraging teachers to embrace student leadership in the classroom. NEED trains and assists teachers in harnessing the energy of the classroom – the energy of students.

NEED is expanding and evolving to best meet the needs of teachers and students – in the classroom and beyond. In just the last decade

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2012 NEED Annual Report

The NEED Project has grown to encompass a curriculum portfolio of over 130 teacher and student guides designed to teach teachers and students about energy. At the same time, the training opportunities offered by NEED expanded to include over 20 varieties of teacher professional development and training for school district energy personnel as well. NEED’s work in afterschool programs, student clubs, scouting groups, and home school networks continues to grow as well.

NEED students and teachers understand energy.

They are local experts and leaders in community discussions on energy use, energy efficiency and new energy technologies. They reach out to the public to actively teach about energy and energy decisions and they practice smart energy decision making with their own families and in their own homes. NEED’s reach, program, and portfolio are very different than they were in the early years, but they still focus on the important student leadership

development that sets NEED apart from being just another curriculum organization. A balanced approach to a discussion of energy is fundamental to how NEED curriculum is written, delivered, and shared.

NEED designs and delivers curriculum and support for virtually any classroom and at any grade level – from Kindergarten to High School and beyond – from science and pre-engineering labs to language arts and afterschool clubs. Students use hands-on, inquiry based lessons to explore the physics and chemistry of energy. They engineer turbines and generators, testing their models for maximum electricity output. Students write and perform plays about energy in drama class, calculate payback periods of energy efficient appliances in math class and discuss the history and human impact of energy use in social studies.

Using tools like NEED’s new online mapping unit for Energy Geography, students learn about energy resources, where they were formed, and where they are produced.

In the recently released Building Science module students learn how to design buildings better to maximize energy efficiency and to keep our buildings healthy. In career and technology classrooms students are installing solar panels, monitoring wind turbine output, and exploring transportation technologies. NEED students are the future of the energy workforce. Students interested in engineering, science, economics, environmental sciences, law, geology and a host of other disciplines have a role in the energy industry. NEED students understand the possibilities of careers in the industry through classroom activities, discussions with energy professionals, and the Career Currents newsletter, designed to provide today’s students with inspiration and information about careers in the energy industry. NEED reminds students and teachers that an understanding of energy is fundamental and important as a citizen in any career.

The same principle is present in NEED training. Educators know that participating in NEED workshops provides them an opportunity to improve their personal energy knowledge while receiving valuable training and ideas to use in their classrooms – no matter what grade level they teach.

Educators report that the curriculum is appropriate for individual grade levels and that the training provided allows them to return to their classrooms and use the materials immediately. It is an honor to know that 100% of teachers attending NEED workshops report that they would recommend the workshop to their peers and that they will use the materials in their classrooms.

NEED sponsors and partners know that supporting NEED programming provides teachers with the best in energy education and teacher support. Whether teaching the very basics of energy – forms and sources – or providing secondary educators with modules on the Chemistry of

I feel being a part of the NEED Project helped me become more confident. As an elementary school student, I was speaking to adults on what our NEED team did. The experience also gave me something to be proud of as I felt I was contributing to something I strongly cared about that was also a concern of others in the world.

~Former NEED Student, Virginia

Energy Efficiency and Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage – NEED is committed to giving teachers the best and most up-to-date information possible and the tools to share that information with their classrooms. As educators request new materials, NEED works quickly to bring new curriculum modules to the classroom. In 2012, a request for deeper oil and natural gas materials will be met with three new modules at the primary, elementary, and intermediate/secondary level – drawing on the best of NEED’s existing curriculum and adding additional resources to explain and understand the nation’s new exploration and development of shale gas – bringing development of natural gas into communities that have not experienced development in decades. www.NEED.org

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I use the hands-on kits probably once a month for various lessons. We tried the Great Energy Debate this year with my 8th graders and it was amazing! Kids really like to do this kind of learning! ~Middle School Science Teacher, Colorado

understanding energy sources, electricity generation and more. In 2012, NEED releases a newly revised and improved Thermodynamics curriculum guide. A sneak peak was highlighted in the April/May issue of Energy Exchange.

Understanding thermal energy is fundamental to understanding so much about energy and energy efficiency.

RENEWABLE AND NONRENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY The curriculum provides comprehensive, objective information and activities on the energy sources that fuel our country, including economic and environmental impacts. Students explore the history of energy, energy in current events, and consider future energy development opportunities and challenges. They understand that certain energy sources may be better choices for specific energy needs, and they discuss and debate the energy sources we use today and will use in the future. NEED believes in teaching about all energy sources and helping students understand that there are many things to consider when making decisions about resource use.

ELECTRICITY

Also in 2012, NEED, working with the Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition, will launch a new transportation module for students to understand school transportation and the new technologies available in Hybrid School Buses. NEED has long had school energy management resources to teach about energy use and energy efficiency in schools.

This new hybrid school bus unit, joins the Biodiesel module to expand NEED’s transportation portfolio.

NEED’s classroom and training offerings are robust, allowing all educators to find what they need within the NEED curriculum. NEED has long delivered energy curriculum and training with the science of energy as a foundation to a deeper understanding of energy and all of its aspects.

NEED students learn about the atom and the particles that make up the atom. They understand electricity as an energy carrier. They learn about electrons and how they move; they build batteries and electromagnets. They explore circuits and learn how electricity is generated and measured. They research fusion and fission, photovoltaics and superconductors, electricity regulation, and politics and policy.

Students consider cleaner-coal technologies, renewable electricity, and natural gas fired electricity generation. They research nuclear energy as a growing option for generating the nation’s electricity.

Working with Pacific Gas & Electric Company, NEED launches SmartMeters in 2012. This new module provides students with the background and lessons needed to understand how new electric and natural gas meters are being deployed by many utilities nationwide. Understanding the technology of the meters and their impact on energy conservation efforts is important to how the nation’s Smart Grid and Smart Meter infrastructure grows. NEED believes in bringing a discussion of new technologies to the classroom. NEED kids learn, they teach others, and communities begin to understand.

THE SCIENCE OF ENERGY Students at all grade levels learn about the forms of energy – heat, light, motion, sound, nuclear energy, and electrical energy – with age-appropriate, hands-on explorations that emphasize the scientific process and an application of newly gained energy knowledge to 12

2012 NEED Annual Report

TRANSPORTATION NEED’s transportation materials cover the transportation fuels and vehicles in use today and the fuels and vehicles of the future. Students learn about gasoline, diesel, hybrid electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrids. Students learn about

hydrogen with the DOE-sponsored H2 Educate curriculum, expand their knowledge of petroleum and its uses and consider the advantages and disadvantages of the fuels we use to transport people and products from place to place.

In 2012, NEED’s entire transportation portfolio will be refreshed and up-dated with improvements made to Transportation Enigma and Transportation Debate. Teachers report that students are actively engaged in learning about transportation technologies while using Transportation Expo and are eager to learn about the vehicles they will own in the future.

Perfect! The information is current, written to the level of my middle schoolers, and the equipment gets lots of use. Kids love the hands on activities. ~Middle School Science Teacher, Colorado

EFFICIENCY & CONSERVATION Learning to use energy wisely is the capstone component of the NEED program. Students learn to read utility meters, use light meters, investigate phantom loads, evaluate information from EnergyGuide labels and make the most use of the Smart Meters installed on their home. They learn about caulking, weather-stripping, and programmable thermostats. They monitor energy consumption and explore ways to reduce it – like using ENERGY STAR® products at home and at school. In a new curriculum module, students experience the lessons from Building Science and how homes and buildings can be built with maximum energy efficiency in mind.

SYNTHESIS OF ENERGY INFORMATION NEED’s curriculum incorporates activities to help synthesize energy information and create valuable connections between science and social science and the application of knowledge to decision making. Students undertake problem based learning activities and explore possible opportunities and challenges for many energy decisions.

EVALUATION Evaluation is a high priority for all of NEED’s programming areas. Teachers and students participate in pre and post knowledge assessments during training workshops and in the classroom. The online Pre/Post Energy Poll provides educators with a tool to assess student knowledge of energy and NEED uses the data to determine areas of needed improvement in the curriculum and training.

Teachers complete evaluations at local energy workshops and at all training events. Longitudinal evaluations are completed three months and one year after a teacher is introduced to NEED, and continue after that to determine maximum impact and efficiency of NEED programming.

NEED’s Teacher Advisory Board of outstanding educators and subject matter experts review NEED materials for scientific accuracy, comprehensiveness, objectivity, educational soundness and effectiveness.

NEED participants – students, educators, sponsors, and

partners – evaluate materials and training programs, as well as new activities. Using evaluation tools included with every unit, teachers evaluate individual activities and the entire NEED program. NEED believes in producing the highest quality curriculum and training possible. With annual updates as a core principle of NEED’s work, teacher feedback is immediately reviewed and alterations and course corrections are made if needed each year.

How NEED delivers curriculum changes too – and NEED’s evaluation shows that access to online curriculum is important, but that teachers still find hard copies best for their use. Teachers use Facebook and Twitter and YouTube at times in the classroom, but continue to rely on email, mail, and word of mouth to learn about new opportunities.

RECOGNITION NEED encourages and rewards student leadership and innovation by sponsoring a Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement. Schools participating in NEED’s programs are invited to submit portfolios of their energy activities. Exceptional teachers and students are www.NEED.org

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I used the curriculum in my classroom as part of my technology/engineering curriculum. The resources you gave us are excellent. I love how there are various reading levels. That really suits my needs. ~High School Engineering teacher, Massachusetts

local and national energy organizations share information about careers in the energy industry and the exciting energy technologies in development today. In addition, as school districts continue to seek ways to reduce budgets – many turn to energy conservation as a way to reduce overall costs. NEED hosts High Performance Schools Conferences and Energy Management for Schools Conferences for school district facilities personnel.

As consumers and community members, educators are a vital link in the process needed to make energy a priority at home, in the classroom, and in daily conversation. NEED believes in treating educators as the professionals they are, and in making their time with NEED instructors valuable, entertaining and educational. Teachers often evaluate NEED training as “the best professional development I’ve ever attended.”

NETWORK RESOURCES

recognized for their efforts at the state and national level and are invited to attend NEED’s National Recognition Ceremonies held each June in Washington, D.C. At the conference students work with their peers to explore new energy activities while NEED teachers have the opportunity to network and re-energize for the coming school year.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Teachers continue to report that they do not receive adequate energy instruction in their college and university courses, yet state and national standards have significant sections devoted to the science of energy and to the energy resources used to provide electricity, transportation, and products. Working with education and energy advisors, NEED designs and delivers professional development opportunities for teachers that not only educate, but also energize and remind teachers of the fun that is possible in the classroom.

Whether attending a one-day workshop or the fiveday National Energy Conference for Educators, teachers interact and share ideas with their peers. Speakers from 14

2012 NEED Annual Report

To serve teachers and students of all learning styles and using all forms of communication, NEED hosts a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and has images of its activities on SmugMug. In 2011, the library of NEED graphics launched as a teacher tool alongside the NEED Bibliography, State Standards Alignments, and the NEED Question Bank for assessment. The addition of new maps for U.S. Energy Geography – in an online format – makes that module easier for teachers to use with technology in the classroom. Today, NEED is hard at work aligning NEED curriculum to Common Core Standards and is honored to also support the creation and release of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education. The culmination of this two year project provides a framework for the design and delivery of energy curriculum and training – to improve and expand the nation’s knowledge of energy.

NEED stays connected to its network via its popular newsletters – Energy Exchange and Career Currents – and a variety of resources and opportunities available on NEED’s website, www.need.org, in addition to many outreach events each year. Energy Exchange provides teachers, students, and sponsors with information and activities about energy and exciting new technologies and discoveries. Career Currents exposes students to the diversity of energy careers. With over 35,000 readers, both newsletters are distributed throughout the school year, and all archived issues are available on www.need.org.

Just like the nation’s electric grid and natural gas pipelines, NEED teachers, students, and partners are all connected. It is this connection that makes NEED strong, relevant, and successful.

Teacher Advisory Board Shelly Baumann Rockford, MI

Viola Henry Thaxton, VA

Don Pruett Sumner, WA

Constance Beatty Kankakee, IL

Robert Hodash Bakersfield, CA

Josh Rubin Palo Alto, CA

Sara Brownell Canyon Country, CA

DaNel Hogan Kuna, ID

Joanne Spaziano Cranston, RI

Loree Burroughs Merced, CA

Greg Holman Paradise, CA

Gina Spencer Virginia Beach, VA

Amy Constant Raleigh, NC

Linda Hutton Kitty Hawk, NC

Tom Spencer Chesapeake, VA

Joanne Coons Clifton Park, NY

Michelle Lamb Buffalo Grove, IL

Joanne Trombley West Chester, PA

Nina Corley Galveston, TX

Barbara Lazar Albuquerque, NM

Jim Wilkie Long Beach, CA

Regina Donour Whitesburg, KY

Robert Lazar Albuquerque, NM

Carolyn Wuest Pensacola, FL

Linda Fonner New Martinsville, WV

Leslie Lively Reader, WV

Wayne Yonkelowitz Fayetteville, WV

Samantha Forbes Vienna, VA

Mollie Mukhamedov Port St. Lucie, FL

The NEED energy curriculum was perfect for the environmental science standards. It provided great lesson ideas! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to use the provided materials and lessons in my classroom. ~High School Environmental Science Teacher, Oklahoma

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YOUTH Awards for Energy Achievement

A

ll NEED schools have classroom-based programs in which students learn about energy.

Many schools have teachers and student leaders who extend their activities to teach other students, their families, and communities. To recognize outstanding achievement and reward student leadership, NEED conducts the National Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement. Schools and student groups set energy education goals and objectives, and document their work to create portfolios to showcase their work and submit the portfolio for state and national review. The portfolios include examples of student work, detailed descriptions of group goals, activities,

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2012 NEED Annual Report

community involvement, student leadership, and evaluation.

State panels review the projects, select winners, and send those reports to national headquarters. A national review panel evaluates the entries and selects national winners in primary, elementary, junior, and senior categories, as well as choosing rookie of the year winners and special category winners for community colleges, youth clubs, school districts, and home school networks.

NEED is proud to recognize the contribution these students and teachers make to increasing America’s energy knowledge.

2012 Youth Awards Review Panel Constance Beatty, Educator, Kennedy Middle Grade School Patrick Bilock, Educator, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School

2012 Youth Awards Sponsors UÊ iÀ V> Ê iVÌÀ VÊ* ÜiÀ UÊ >«iÊ } ÌÊ «>VÌ

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Cha-Chi Fan, United States Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration

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Matthew Inman, Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, United States Department of Energy Steve Kinard, MBA Candidate, George Washington University Michael Kopalek, United States Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration

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Stacy MacIntyre, United States Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Joseph Madison, United States Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Robert Robinson, Vice President for Solar Outreach, DC Sun

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Thomas Williams, United States Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration

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Student of the Year Alysha Anderson

Much of what makes Alysha NEED’s Student of the Year for 2012 is explained so well by her Air Force Junior ROTC teacher and NEED teacher, Everett Smith.

In his words, “Alysha’s enthusiasm shared during

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2012 NEED Annual Report

lessons learned at the 2011 Youth Awards inspired her to bring even more NEED focus to the school and community. She was selected to be her high school’s AFJROTC Commander out of 54 possible candidates.

She was chosen for her leadership abilities. She sets and reaches overall unit goals based on teamwork through plans formed with the help of fellow cadets in leadership positions. She is able to work with a diverse group of students and form an effective team.”

Alysha’s passion for leadership and energy is evident in her work and that of the NEED team at Franklin County High School in Winchester, Tennessee. The energy she brought to NEED is unstoppable – and pulls all those around her into learning more, achieving more, and having fun at the same time.

Through her NEED work in Tennessee, she is quick to bring people together, to teach about energy, and to seek opportunities to learn more. From planning field trips to learn about biodiesel to organizing an electronic waste drive and collecting 4,500 pounds of e-waste, Alysha is always working to make her community a more efficient and energy educated place.

Alysha’s ability to encourage others to learn and think about energy makes her a deserving recipient of the 2012 Student of the Year Award. She joins the ranks of NEED’s best and brightest – who have made an impact on NEED for many years. NEED is also pleased to present her with the NEED Youth Leadership Award – a $1,500 scholarship for outstanding NEED students. Congratulations Alysha!

Distinguished Service Awards John Davies

Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence

In June 2012, NEED wraps-up several years of energy education programming funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As the ARRA funding comes to a close, NEED looks back on over a decade of strong support from the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence and the support of extraordinary individuals within that department. Today, Kentucky teachers are better equipped to teach energy in the classroom, Kentucky students understand the role they play in the future of Kentucky energy, and Kentucky schools are more energy efficient than ever before.

John Davies serves as Deputy Commissioner within the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence. Prior to this appointment he served as the department’s director for the Division of Energy Efficiency and Conservation. Mr. Davies has managed energy programs for the Commonwealth since 2000, and throughout his tenure at the Department he has been a tried and true advocate for energy education in all aspects – for students, for families,

and for school district energy professionals. Much of what NEED does today, in Kentucky and beyond, have been tried and tested in the Commonwealth of Kentucky under John’s dedicated oversight. NEED’s EnergyStar Change the World Mini-Grants, High Performance Schools Conferences, and Energy Management for Schools training all achieved greater success because of his support.

In his spare time, he has served as a board member for the National Association of State Energy Officials, Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition, the Southern States Energy Board Biobased Alliance, the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, and is an ex-officio member on the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s Energy and Transportation Advisory Committee. Mr. Davies also serves as board secretary to the U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Advisory Board.

Prior to joining the department he was employed

by Ferrellgas, Inc. as an Area Manager for Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. Mr. Davies is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel having served in Europe, the Far East and Washington D.C. He obtained his bachelor’s degree and commission while attending the University of Illinois. He also holds a master’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

John’s support and friendship to NEED are among NEED’s greatest achievements and assets. We are honored to have him among our strongest advisors and supporters. Congratulations and Thank You, John! www.NEED.org

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Distinguished Service Awards Greg Guess

Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence

It is not often that two individuals from the same organization make such a profound impact on NEED programs and offerings to teachers and students.

In 2012, we are especially honored to bestow the 2012 Distinguished Service Award on Greg Guess.

Greg’s long-time support of NEED programs has made the Kentucky NEED Project the powerhouse it is today – reaching hundreds of teachers each year, providing technical training to school energy managers, and encouraging schools to harness the best energy they can – the energy of teachers and students. Throughout his work with NEED, now

spanning over a decade, Greg has been a thoughtful advisor, confidant, and proponent – encouraging the Kentucky NEED team and NEED’s national team, to try new things, explore new opportunities, and to refine many of our programs, especially in energy conservation and efficiency for schools.

In his official role, Mr. Guess serves as the Director for the Division of Efficiency and Conservation within the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence. He has over 30 years’ experience working in state government with much of it in executive level administration and management positions. He has been with the department since 2009 where he manages Kentucky’s energy efficiency and conservation programs. Prior to starting his directorship in 2009, he served as an Assistant Director for the Governor’s Office of Energy Policy where he worked with similar programs and provided strong support to NEED as well. He first began his work with the Commonwealth’s energy programs in 1975 where he served as a senior development representative for the Kentucky Energy Office. During this time he helped design and execute Kentucky’s first comprehensive energy conservation programs. Greg was working to make Kentucky energy efficient even before NEED existed!

A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Greg has spent his career educating and making people understand the importance of energy and the importance of a clear understanding of energy. NEED is lucky to have his wise counsel, good humor, and strong support. We are honored to have him among our strongest advisors and supporters.

Greg, we are grateful to you for your commitment to NEED, your dedication to students and teachers, and your boundless energy. Congratulations and Thank You, Greg!

The NEED curriculum has really supplemented almost every one of my units that I do. I also use the books if a student forgot a book for our time given for students to read or make up missing assignments. ~Middle School Science Teacher, Utah 20

2012 NEED Annual Report

State Program of the Year Illinois

Each year, NEED selects a state program that has shown extraordinary growth and success in reaching more teachers than ever before, providing more resources to classroom teachers, and gaining the support of a diverse and engaged groups of partners.

In the 2011-2012 school-year, Illinois programming grew exponentially, with over 1,200 teachers trained and thousands of students reached with hands-on energy curriculum.

Illinois teachers and students have access to teacher training across the state thanks to the support of ComEd, ConocoPhillips, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and the Walmart Foundation.

ComEd’s substantial support of over 30 teacher workshops per year reaches over 700 educators and provides NEED Science of Energy kits, curriculum, and Energy Management kits to schools. Connected to the ComEd Smart Ideas initiative, the program helps teachers and students understand energy use in the classroom and to take those lessons home to share

with their families – helping ComEd families save energy every day. For over six years, ComEd has made energy education a priority in its service area in northern and central Illinois – consistently evolving and improving the program to meet teacher and student needs.

NEED is lucky to have support from ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 to provide teacher training throughout the state – providing educators with an opportunity to learn more about petroleum and natural gas in areas not reached by ComEd and other partners.

ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 support NEED workshops and classroom curriculum and kits – to provide educators with the foundation needed to teach about energy in the classroom.

Over the past 10 years, NEED has supported the Illinois Solar Schools program funded by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation as part of a partnership with the Foundation for Environmental Education. In 2012, this program expanded to provide wind turbines to selected schools and boasts dozens of solar schools across the state. NEED provides teacher training and solar kits and curriculum to participating schools. This solar program, in addition to NEED’s Walmart Foundation supported solar schools program, brings solar installations to schools and integrate the systems into the classroom with hands-on solar curriculum and kits and with lessons using the data produced by the photovoltaic system. Working with the Foundation for Environmental Education, the Walmart Solar Schools program installed photovoltaic systems on schools in the Chicago Public School District, celebrated solar with a Solarbration and Ribbon Cutting, and hosted Chicago teachers for training on solar power.

The success of NEED programs in Illinois illustrates the impact of energy education when many partners come together to teach about energy and to provide educators with training and resources so needed in the classroom.

www.NEED.org

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Regional Program of the Year The PECO Energizing Education Program

Throughout the NEED network, there are extraordinary examples of NEED’s core principle of sharing successes and learning from other teachers, students, and districts. This year, the 2012 Regional Program of the Year Award is presented to the PECO Energizing Education Program (PEEP) serving greater Philadelphia, PA. The PECO Energizing Education Program is “project-based,” combining a five-week classroom program with a school energy audit completed by students, a field trip to a PECO power station, a community project and an exciting opportunity for students to present their energy projects at a yearend community event. Designed and implemented by PECO, The Franklin Institute and NEED, the program is supported by a grant from PECO and the Exelon Foundation.

PEEP completed its fourth successful year during the 2011-2012 school-year. Following classroom

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2012 NEED Annual Report

explorations and field trips to PECO generation facilities, students put their knowledge to practical use by completing an energy efficiency/conservation community project for their local community. With over 30 schools participating, more and more teachers, students and families are engaged in the program’s active energy and environmental education and outreach. In 2011-2012 alone, over 2,000 students benefitted from the program – which now includes afterschool programs with The Salvation Army, Girls, Inc, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Overbrook Environmental Education Center. Even WHYY, Philadelphia’s Public Television station is actively involved – promoting the program and showcasing student work. Academically, the program has changed how some school districts integrate energy into the curriculum. Since the very first year of the program, the West Chester School District has involved over 900 students each year – by integrating program resources into the career and technology classroom.

The project was created in the interest of the Greater Philadelphia community. Its commitment to improving the city and the lives of its residents is modeled after PECO’s strong community ties and extensive philanthropic efforts. PECO is one of the region’s most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations. PEEP is also presented in collaboration with The Franklin Institute and NEED, two organizations that are committed to serving the public through providing cutting-edge education resources and supporting initiatives designed to better people’s lives through learning about science, energy, and the environment.

PEEP’s year-end showcase gives students an opportunity to highlight various community outreach projects, ensuring that their efforts extend far beyond the classroom walls.

NEED is honored to be part of the PECO program and to work with The Franklin Institute and the great PEEP teachers and students. We extend our sincere gratitude and congratulations to PECO and the entire team for this extraordinary program. Congratulations PECO!

Primary Level School of the Year Kentucky

Harlow Early Learning Center Harrodsburg, KY Project Title: Kinetic Kindergarteners Project Advisor: Ellie Vandivier

Our goals were to increase energy awareness at our school, to begin a school-wide recycling program, and to get the community involved in our efforts. To get us started our teacher modified the NEED curriculum to our level (nonreaders). Then we spent the entire school year learning about energy, completing hands-on activities and teaching others. To meet our energy goals we conducted secret audits, designed and conducted an energy play for preschoolers and kindergarteners, held an energy booth at our Fall Festival, did a plug-load study and a light study, brought in guest speakers, had energy captains and energy checklists in each room, made a display for our board meeting and created an ‘Energy Wall’ to showcase all our hard work. To meet our recycling goals we designed a recycling play for a school-wide assembly, completed a school-wide ‘dumpster dive,’ began a cafeteria recycling program, visited our local recycling center, brought in guest speakers, worked with a local factory, completed an amazing “recycled lids” project, and held weekly ‘ dumpster dumps.’ Our efforts helped our school save money and earn ENERGY STARR status, and enabled us to make a positive contribution to our community and world.

Elementary Level Schools of the Year Massachusetts

Eastham Elementary School Eastham, MA Project Title: Energy Investigators Project Advisor: Maggie Brown

This year we wanted to reach out to as many kids in our school as we could. We put on an Energy Fair for the entire school, parents and the community. We added a challenge to families to create an energy efficient house. We had seven families participate and a first grader won.

A small group of us started two energy clubs. The first club was for first graders and we taught them about the types of energy: sound, wind, solar, and magnetic.

The next club we started was an engineering club and we designed, built and tested our solar ovens. The most successful oven got to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The kids were able to make and eat cookies.

Along the way we sold compact fluorescent light bulbs to raise money for supplies for our own science club. We sold over two hundred bulbs to neighbors, family and friends.

The final challenge we took on was to have an energy fair at a local museum. We took our Science of Energy experiments and set up a fair at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History on a Saturday. We had fun teaching others about energy. www.NEED.org

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Elementary Level Schools of the Year Michigan

John F. Kennedy Elementary School Manistee, MI Project Title: Going Green Project Advisor: Constance Josvai

It has been quite the year for us this year at John F. Kennedy Elementary School. Moving Kennedy Elementary from our old school building to a different school building that used

to house our middle school and high school students had a lot of changes and challenges for us. First, we had to bring over our recycling bins that were left at the other building so we could continue to recycle. We had to contact “Cartridges for Kids” to let them know our new address and to ship us materials to start the new school year. With all of the adjustments that had to be made, we got a late start on making our goals. We learned about the 12 types of Energy Sources and how the Energy Sources produce electricity. In our Science class, we learned about Photosynthesis and the NEED Science of Energy. We even got out of school one day in December to teach 27 Science teachers the NEED Science of Energy experiments. In March, we showed the parents at a Title I Parent night the NEED. Monitoring and Mentoring Kit and student guides for parents to take home.

Right after Spring Break, we made Energy Cootie Catchers to share with Mrs. Dobis’ Kindergarten students. On May 24th, we will be hosting an Energy Carnival at our school during a Family Fun Night along with putting on a WalkA-Thon that day in Manistee. With all of the changes we endured this past school year, we are proud to say our team with the goals that we made, has helped our “new” school earn the highest-ranking “Michigan Evergreen School” through Michigan Green Schools.

Students loved it. They moved from station to station learning first-hand the many forms of energy and energy transfer. Several worksheets to reinforce their learning were also used. Students also worked in groups, investigated and presented the many energy resources available. Because your curriculum is scaffold for learning levels all my students were able to access the information.

Thank you! ~Middle School Science and Technology Teacher, California 24

2012 NEED Annual Report

Junior Level Schools of the Year Ohio

Heritage Middle School Westerville, OH Project Title: Plug Into Energy Project Advisor: Debbie Pellington, Nyesha Clayton, LaVanya Watkins, Jason Tucker

Rhode Island

Park View Middle School Cranston, RI Project Title: PV Cougars Project Advisor: Joanne Spaziano, Nancy DeCosta, Sheila Hopkins

The goal of the Heritage Energy Leaders was to get as many people as possible to “Plug Into Energy” in a fun and educational way. We showcased this in our scrapbook by connecting each page with a plug and cord going into an outlet. The outlet is a draft stopper, an energy conservation tool that we distributed at many school and community activities this year. In addition, each outlet showcases a sentence that summarizes our energy accomplishment featured on the page.

To integrate our goal of educating about energy through fun activities, we incorporated that into our scrapbook too.

The scrapbook contains some pages that are not enclosed in plastic page protectors. Those pages include some type of interactive way to highlight energy information such as lifting a flap, a pop-up, a mini-book or choosing an energy answer.

We succeeded at getting people to “Plug Into Energy” through such activities as hosting multiple energy fairs, lunches featuring NEED games, energy education stations at parent-teacher conferences and meet the teacher night and participating in the NEED National Solar Bake-Off. We also ran a successful school-wide recycling program and organized Energy Awareness Week encouraging both school and community members to “Plug Into Energy”.

2011-2012 was a growth year for Park View. Almost all of our leader students were new 7th graders. We met early in September to form a new group. We learned about NEED at the Hot Dog roast where we received PV beads that turned color in the sunlight. We presented at Open House about using CFL’s to save energy and money. We had our ESL team attend our Middle school conference and we also presented an Elementary Conference both for the RI state Energy Office and the NEED national office. People registered through the NEED website. We had our 2nd annual Energy Fair which we think was our best event. We enjoyed presenting to the community and being together from 2:30–8:00pm! The Park View community was informed about our events through notices in the bulletin, on the email list to teachers and parents, as well as the Park View website. The Cranston Herald covered our events this year through reporter Pam Tcath. We reached 500+ people directly through our conferences and school events and about 3000+ through the media coverage. We look forward to 2012-2013 as we grow our NEED team with returning 8th graders and incoming 7th graders. www.NEED.org

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Junior Level Schools of the Year Tennessee

White Pine School White Pine, TN Project Title: Conserve Energy: Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle Project Advisor: Audrey Hughes

The team worked to promote energy conservation through the reduction of resource use, reusing materials and recycling.

The team learned about energy conservation using NEED resources and lessons, partnering with Appalachian Electric

and taking field trips. The team shared energy conservation information with the public at venues throughout the county. Thousands of people in our community were educated about energy conservation through the team’s efforts.

White Pine School saw a dramatic decrease in energy use because of team inspired renovations and conservation efforts. Team members participated in America’s Home Energy Challenge and saved energy at home.

Recycling at our school and community has increased.

Over $350 has been donated to fight hunger using proceeds earned through the Trash Hunger Campaign.

During Energy Awareness Month and Energy Education Week, students and community members were taught energy education lessons by team members, energy education professionals, and through interactive theatrical performances. A record 212 families conducted home energy audits as part of the Tennessee Home Energy Project and 275 individuals took the Energy Star Pledge.

Team members promoted the project to local, state, and national level political leaders.

The team accomplished its primary goal: to educate others to conserve energy through reducing, reusing and recycling. The team continues to learn and make positive changes in the community.

Senior Level School of the Year Rhode Island

Scituate High School Scituate, RI Project Title: Scituate High School NEED Project Project Advisor: Shannon Donovan 26

2012 NEED Annual Report

This year, the Scituate NEED Club has been a part of various activities ranging from growing organic foods to converting a motorized vehicle to an electric vehicle. We have taken several trips to the elementary schools in the town, North Scituate, Hope, and Clayville, as well as two tours of Johnston Farms. Locally grown foods are our main focus of educating others to conserve energy as our food choices are tightly linked to transportation fuel use. In the our high school’s greenhouse, we have been growing vegetables and other plants to further enforce this ‘green’ idea, and held a plant sale open to all in our community.

Last May, we donated plants to three community gardens in our state.

At two NEED workshops we taught teachers and students from around the state about the science of energy with our eight stations: fuel cells, solar power, wind power, light, electricity and magnetism, transportation fuel, hydropower, and nuclear energy. We also helped set up and run Energy Night for the physical science classes. The NEED club is the foundation of the school’s energy conservation and environmentally friendly ideas and events.

Special Project of the Year Massachusetts

Harwich Community Learning Center Program Harwich Port, MA Project Title: Energize for Our Environment Project Advisor: Sally Andreola

This year we got right to work on our project to Energize for Our Environment. We fulďŹ lled a lot of goals that we had previously set, such as starting recycling in our school.

Through this we were able to cut our trash output by forty percent. The energy club also kept alive some traditions from last year, like energy fairs at both the elementary and middle schools and the selling of energy efďŹ cient CFL light bulbs. In order to increase energy awareness in our school and community, we did some other neat things, including turning our school parking lot into an idle-free zone.

We also sent an educator from the Alliance for Climate Education to talk to the people in two of our schools about climate change and what we can do to stop it.

Some new goals we continue to work on are to help start recycling in the other schools in our district, and to better educate the students in our school on what is recyclable in order to make our recycling output greater than our trash output.

As you can see, we have been hard at work this year and are trying hard to better our community and ourselves.

www.NEED.org

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Primary Level Rookie School of the Year Wisconsin

Park Community Charter School Kaukauna, WI Project Title: We All NEED Community Connections Project Advisor: Kim TeGrootenhuis

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2012 NEED Annual Report

Our school, Park Community Charter School, has a partnership with our local utility company. Each grade walks to Kaukauna Utilities throughout the year. Students at Park love to go to Kaukauna Utilities because they learn so much about their community history, the Fox River, hydropower, and how new technology is used to decrease water and electricity use. Students are learning how to make our community a better place to live.

We learned about our community’s history at Kaukauna Utilities. The management team explained how the Fox River has changed over time. Park Community Charter students learned that the Fox River powers part of the electricity in our city. This is called hydropower. We have learned how to use water and electricity properly so our utility bills decrease. Water can be saved if we take shorter showers and use less water when we wash our hands. Kaukauna Utilities teaches us to conserve energy by using solar panels and different light bulbs. Learning to save water and electricity is fun and useful. We connect to Kaukauna Utilities, because we are very interested in learning to help our community save water and electricity.

This will make Kaukauna a better place to live and learn.

Elementary Level Rookie School of the Year Kentucky

Cane Run Environmental Magnet Elementary School Louisville, KY Project Title: High Performance Sustainable Tour Project Project Advisor: Darlene Horton The Cane Run NEED Green Team accomplished four major energy goals this year. First we participated in a workshop for state leaders in energy education and building design, giving tours of our school and explaining its high performance features and demonstrating how the building is integrated into our curriculum.

We also taught students about the transfer of energy in a garden from soil to table. To do this we used NEED’s energy books and learned about the transfer of energy and gardening. We planned; prepared the soil; planted gardens; cared for the gardens; harvested vegetables and prepared a meal. Every class now has a garden.

Our team also did a light study of the solar tubes and fluorescent light fixtures in the school. Using light meters, graphs and charts we conducted a scientific study, and then put our data into a spreadsheet, created a graph and shared the results and method with students, staff, families and visitors.

Finally, to reduce the amount of material going into the landfill from the school, we decided to promote recycling and composting. We made posters and made announcements to the school about recycling. We met with our sponsor and the plant operator to learn how to do recycle pickups. We put our plan into action and included everyone in the school. Next, we decided to support composting.

Our school is in a pilot program to compost food from the cafeteria. We created a poster campaign, student council announcements and asked for community volunteers to help out in the cafeteria.

Result: Our project has been so successful that our school now has one less garbage pickup each week. We have added one recycle pick up per week. This results in less waste going into landfills. Our efforts are helping the Earth.

NEED’s curriculum is comprehensive, allowing me to facilitate the curriculum without having to invent it! ~K-12 Science Teacher, Nebraska

www.NEED.org

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Junior Level Rookie School of the Year California

Sierra Middle School Bakersfield, CA Project Title: Kids for Solar Energy Project Advisor: Bob Hodash

The Kids for Solar Energy Club was formed in 2005 at Sierra Middle School, Bakersfield California, for students in sixth through eighth grade. The Club explores ways to use solar energy to reduce greenhouse gasses and climate change and save energy through recycling.

Utilizing NEED curriculum we have used solar energy to cook foods and converted light into electricity to power model cars. Additionally, the Club has explored electric energy consumption by monitoring at school and homes, making recommendations on saving energy and money.

The KSE Club has been very active in the promotion of solar energy and green projects. We have presented at local schools, Earth Day festivals, and other events. Through our efforts we have educated our students, our school’s families, and the public about the importance of saving energy, recycling, and the benefits of renewable technologies.

This year the PG&E Solar Schools Program awarded our School, the first California Solar Schools Model School.

As part of this recognition we received a twenty kilowatt photovoltaic array! This PV array will generate electricity year round, will provide over 100,000 watts of electricity a day and will save our school tens of thousands of dollars each year!

I needed to share this story with you regarding our visit to a local school. We took students from our collaboratively instructed class and students from the high school’s NEED club to visit a Friday afternoon. The students presented information to third grade classes on transportation fuels and announced our intention to use the raised garden beds we constructed to plant a garden at the school. The third graders worked hard preparing for our visit using the NEED Elementary Transportation Fuels Infobook. The presentations went well. As one of the special needs students was departing for his resource hour (this young man is autistic) he turned and made and announcement to our students. He said “I want to thank you all for coming. You are role models to me and I want to be just like you guys when I get to the middle school. I am making a note of that.” He then left. The students were flattered, but it was not until the teacher, came up to me with tears in hers eyes and said, “That young man has never spoken to anyone outside people he knew in that way. He never has reached beyond himself that way. Please tell your students.” Well, I did and now I am telling you both about our amazing students and about how this young man connected with students teaching students, the very goal of NEED. I can’t wait to return and plant seeds in the raised beds with this young man. WOW! This is a life changer. ~8-12 Education, Rhode Island

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2012 NEED Annual Report

Senior Level Rookie School of the Year Massachusetts

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School Acton, MA Project Title: Power-Down Project Project Advisor: Kate Crosby

The Power-Down Project began in the fall of 2010 as a new organization at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School with a focus on raising awareness about energy conservation within the high school. We started off meeting

on Saturdays to gather information about how much power was being used by various kinds of equipment around the high school. We went on to create strategies to promote powering down equipment on weekends, conserving lighting in unoccupied spaces, and upgrading inefficient light bulbs. In our first year, electricity consumption at Acton-Boxborough dropped 5.5%, leading to cost savings and a lighter environmental footprint for our school. Thanks to great support in the high school and ongoing Power Down publicity and projects, electricity consumption has continued to drop even further this year.

Power-Down Project members have also made much progress in unifying efforts with other clubs at ActonBoxborough through establishing a school-wide Green Council and through creating a great website about sustainability at our school. Although fundamentally simple, the Power-Down Project has fostered a significant shift in energy consumption at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and has extended its reach to create a more environmentally aware community.

We appreciate NSTAR Electric and Gas and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources for helping to support our Power-Down Project!

www.NEED.org

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-/ / ÊEÊ, " PROGRAMS

T

he NEED Project offers programs in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Mariana Islands as well as working around the globe with partners in the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Thailand among others. Sponsors and partners provide support to deliver teacher training, classroom curriculum materials, hands-on kits, energy installations, energy field trips, home energy efficiency and school energy management programs to teachers and students. NEED works with local, state, and national energy companies, organizations and agencies to provide energy education curriculum and training for classrooms across the United States and throughout the world.

NEED develops curriculum and training to meet its long-term goal of providing energy education resources to every appropriate classroom in the country. In some regions, there is little financial support for energy education training and classroom curriculum. To serve these educators requires creativity at times, and NEED has responded by placing NEED’s annually updated curriculum guides, graphics and program tools on

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2012 NEED NEED Annual Annual Report Report 2012

www.NEED.org. In addition, NEED’s longtime work with the Energy Information Administration made the Energy Kids website available to students at the click of a mouse. NEED is committed to being available to every educator who seeks to educate, innovate and inspire students to learn more about energy.

NEED believes in a local approach to energy education. NEED programs in Alaska provide different resources and experiences than those in the United States Virgin Islands. All programs are built on the foundation of balanced energy education curriculum correlated to local, state, and national standards, and comprehensive teacher training to prepare and support classroom teachers.

The culmination of many of these efforts is the NEED Youth Awards for Energy Achievement. This program recognizes student leadership in energy education at the local, state, and national level.

The student projects detailed in these pages showcase the NEED network’s commitment to teaching and learning about energy. For more information about the Youth Awards and NEED’s programs, visit www.NEED.org.

-Ì>ÌiÊEÊ,i} > Contacts In some areas, NEED has the resources available to have staff supporting state and local programs. In others, NEED programs are managed by the staff of State Energy Offices or other partners. Contacting NEED Headquarters in Virginia is always a good first step in learning more about energy programs in specific regions. Contact NEED at 800-875-5029 or at info@need.org.

CALIFORNIA Contact: Barry Scott Tel: (209) 482-5663 Email: bscott@need.org

MASSACHUSETTS (Cape Cod) Contact: Debbie Fitton Tel: (508) 375-6703 Email: dfitton@capelightcompact.org

COLORADO Contact: Vernon Kimball Tel: (970) 946-9343 Email: vkimball@need.org

MASSACHUSETTS and the Northeast Contact: Todd Rogers Tel: (315) 655-3507 Email: trogers@need.org

GEORGIA Contact: Karen Reagor Tel: (859) 578-0312 Email: kreagor@need.org INDIANA Contact: Caryn Turrel Tel: (317) 502-2552 Email: cturrel@need.org KENTUCKY Contact: Karen Reagor Tel: (859) 578-0312 Email: kreagor@need.org MAINE Contact: Peter Zack Tel: (207) 625-7833 Email: meep@psouth.net MAINE PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY– NEED PROGRAMS Contact: Nancy Chandler Tel: (207) 768-5811 Email: nchandler@mainepublicservice.com

MISSISSIPPI Mississippi Development Authority– Energy Division Contact: Lisa Campbell Tel: (601) 359-6600 Email: lcampbell@mississippi.org NEW YORK Contact: Todd Rogers Tel: (315) 655-3507 Email: trogers@need.org NORTH CAROLINA Contact: Amy Constant Tel: (919) 876-6317 Email: aconstant@need.org OHIO Ohio Energy Project Contact: Deb Yerkes Tel: (614) 785-1717 Email: dyerkes@ohioenergy.org Web: www.ohioenergy.org

PUERTO RICO Puerto Rico Energy Affairs Administration Contact: Ariel Roman Tel: (787) 999-2200 RHODE ISLAND Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources Contact: Charlie Hawkins Tel: (401) 574-9124 Email: chawkins@energy.ri.gov TENNESSEE Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of Energy Policy Contact: Chyrall Dawson Tel: (615) 741-6671 Email: Chyrall.Dawson@tn.gov TEXAS Contact: Melanie Harper Tel: (432) 553-7656 Email: mharper@need.org VIRGIN ISLANDS Virgin Island Energy Office Contact: Leila Muller Tel: (340) 773-1080 WYOMING Contact: Vernon Kimball Tel: (970) 946-9343 Email: vkimball@need.org

www.NEED.org www.NEED.org

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Alabama

Aliceville High School Aliceville, AL Project Title: ASAP Global Energy III Project Advisor: Lucille Hatcher

STATE SPOTLIGHT

ALASKA

NEED programming continues to excite teachers and students in Alaska with workshops provided by BP, ConocoPhillips, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The goal of our NEED project this year is summed up with the acronym ASAP-GE-II. As soon as possible the students at Aliceville High School need to reinforce and spread their knowledge about energy around the globe via the World Wide Web. Our quest is to get the word out by any means necessary to at least 100,000 friends.

Our main goal was to make today’s youth aware of energy problems and solutions to those problems, ASAP-GE-II Science Club taught the Pickens community about being effective “Energy Detectives”, simple ways to save energy at home. We use the Alabama Reading Initiative learning Strategies and displayed our work in prominent places around the school. We energize the elementary and middle school teachers to encourage their students to share their knowledge with tons of energy resources, prizes and awards. We publish an energy detective flyer. The flyer taught Pickens County community ten ways they can save energy, save money, thus save energy for the next generation.

Our Energy detective flyer would reach approximately 40,000 new friends via text, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, email, and face to face with simple ways to save energy.

As a result we believe we did make others aware that the next generation will be grateful that we achieved our energy education goal. Many friends responded back with many encouraging words. Some friends stated that they would save energy. Yet other friends state that they think this was a cool way to use Facebook at school. Still others promised to forward the energy detective message on to their friends. To date, we have documentation that 40,000 new friends received our message.

Workshops hosted in Kenai,

Anchorage, Fairbanks and Wasilla provided educators with hands-on kits and curriculum, briefings on energy careers, and Alaska’s energy picture.

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS (SPE) & THE OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE (OTC) NEED, SPE, and OTC trained over 100 educators and 200 students at the 2012 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. The teacher workshop, sponsored by ExxonMobil allows educators to tour the exhibits – ranging from helicopters, oil and gas equipment, and drilling technologies to new computer programs used to search and produce oil and gas – and to participate in NEED lessons and activities.

The student STEM workshop, sponsored by BP, provides local high school students with an opportunity to participate in hands-on energy explorations, to tour the OTC exhibits and to talk about careers in the offshore energy industry with OTC exhibitors and tour guides. NEED and SPE work together to distribute the SPE Oil and Natural Gas resource book as well as the Energy4Me lessons and activities created for schools

by SPE. Visit www.energy4me.org for more information.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

California

CALIFORNIA – PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC, GENON, AND UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY Sierra Middle School Bakersfield, CA Project Title: Kids for Solar Energy Project Advisor: Bob Hodash Junior Rookie School of the Year See page 30

Educators in Northern and Central California continue to enjoy the op« ÀÌÕ Ì iÃÊ«À Û `i`ÊLÞÊÌ iÊ*>V wVÊ >ÃÊEÊ iVÌÀ VÊ- >ÀÊ-V ÃÊ*À }À> °ÊÊ / iÊ* E Ê- >ÀÊ-V ÃÊ*À }À> ]Ê`i ÛiÀi`Ê Ê«>ÀÌ iÀà «ÊÜ Ì Ê ]Ê includes energy workshops for teachers, over $400,000 in school grants through the Bright Ideas Grant program, and the continued data > `Êi iVÌÀ V ÌÞÊ}i iÀ>Ì ÊvÀ Ê ÛiÀÊ£ÓäÊ* E Ê- >ÀÊ-V ÃÊ ÃÌ> >tions. In 2011, NEED and the University of California-Berkeley received a grant from NASA to host Solar Science workshops for classroom teachers. Now in its second year, the workshop, hosted in partnership with the Space Science Laboratory at UC-Berkeley, brings the science of

California

the sun together with NEED’s science of solar energy activities. In 20112012, NEED was fortunate to be selected as an education partner for Ì iÊ* E Ê iÜÊ iÀ}ÞÊ V>`i iÃÊ*À }À> °ÊÊ/ ÃÊivv ÀÌÊÃÕ«« ÀÌÃÊV>ÀiiÀÊ >V>`i iÃÊ>ÌÊwÛiÊ } ÊÃV ÃÊ ÊÌ iÊ* E ÊÃiÀÛ ViÊ>Ài>°ÊÊ/ iÊ«À }À> Ê provides extraordinary training opportunities for teachers and students and is designed to build California’s energy workforce for the future. In 2011, GenOn joined NEED as a sponsor of teacher workshops in California and over 250 educators received training in Concord, Oxnard and Rancho Cucamonga.

Independence High School Bakersfield, CA Project Title: Falcon Autistic Solar Team (FAST) Project Advisor: Kevin Crosby

We have started a solar club for our higher-functioning students with Autism called F.A.S.T. (Falcon Autistic Solar Team). We travel to other schools around Kern County, CA and teach their students about how solar energy works.

We peer-tutor other classes on how a solar panel takes radiant energy from the sun and converts it into electricity.

Our students learn the most from visual and kinesthetic activities. If they can see and build a solar-powered car with their own hands, they can make the connection of how we can harness the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity.

We then took what we learned about solar energy and scaffolded into brainstorming activities covering energy conservation, energy usage, forms of energy, photosynthesis, and electricity. The Falcon Autistic Solar Team also helped introduce different types of energy to the students. Then we discussed the main things that energy helps us do.

Energy activities we have done include conducting solar demonstrations to educate other students, creating an energy calendar to share conservation ideas, and studying how radiometers work. We took a field trip to a wind farm in Tehachapi, CA to study wind energy, traveled to the Southern California Edison-Energy Education Center in Tulare, CA, and hosted an ‘Energy Run’ for the students at Independence High School to motivate them to think about how our bodies use energy. We used a solar oven to cook vegetables and to bake bread and cookies, flew a solar balloon, built a solar “Power House,” and built Lego cars and a Ferris wheel powered by a photovoltaic panel. www.NEED.org

35

California

Independence High School Bakersfield, CA Project Title: A.C.E.-A.B.L.E. Conservation and Energy Project Advisor: Tim Horton

A.C.E. (ABLE to Conserve Energy) is a new program designed for Juniors and Seniors who are high-functioning students with Autism. This program focuses on how these students can make a difference within their homes and community through conservation, education, and social role-playing with their peers as they prepare to transition to continued educational opportunities. This program is also designed to teach functional skills that these students will use for the rest of their life through the promotion of energy and

California Rookie Finalist

San Joaquin County Office of Education New Energy Academy Stockton, CA Project Title: It’s ALL About Energy!

Project Advisor: Jeannine Huffman

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2012 NEED Annual Report

resource saving activities. These students have created blogs, television commercials, recycled art projects, and comic books for elementary students. They participated in field trips to energy related facilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Gas Company, California Area Living Museum, Wind Wolves Ecology Ranch, and California Water Company. These students have created public service announcements and commercials that run on public television to teach the community.

High functioning students with Autism have difficulty with social interaction and learning basic skills due to different ways of processing information as it comes into the brain. As these students get older, relating to their peers and learning becomes more difficult. This program was started to help these special education students learn how to communicate and teach others using different teaching techniques to reach the different types of learning modalities. Teaching science to these students requires the use of visual, kinesthetic, and oral lessons to reinforce concepts. Role playing situations are used to show both general and special education students the importance of managing resources effectively. This is the first year that my high functioning students with Autism have been included with general education students in any sort of lesson.

This program has been very successful in teaching geology, resource management, ecology, resource usage, social skills, and future job skills to both general and special education students.

During the school year, we did great projects that taught us a LOT about energy. First, we learned about forms and sources of energy. We played with multi-meters, made wind turbines, split water for a hydrogen fuel cell, and generated electricity by making lemon batteries and Squishy Circuits. Our SJCOE Green Team conducted a real energy audit to save energy.

We are looking at energy and transportation now and building solar cars to compete in the Junior Solar Sprint and entering the Solar Regatta. We are building a solar scooter, an electric go-cart, and converting an old MG sports car to electric.

We really loved presenting our projects at community events such as PG&E, REXPO, and dedicating our solar parking lot. We look forward to Earth Day. When we look back on this year and think about all the things we’ve done it amazes us. Our favorite project was designing our Passive Solar Homes to use zero net energy and we did not want to stop. The projects have taught us how to be greener and conserve. We know it is up to us to take care of the planet.

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

Colorado

ENCANA – LOUISIANA, COLORADO, TEXAS & WYOMING In 2011-2012, NEED and Encana partnered to provide

Lucile Erwin Middle School Loveland, CO Project Title: Energy at Erwin Project Advisor: Jen Varrella

teacher workshops and curriculum materials to schools in Louisiana, Colorado, Texas and Wyoming. Teachers have the opportunity to learn about energy and local energy resources while learning about Encana’s activities near them.

A focus on transportation fuels and energy efficiency engages students and help them learn about the energy resources developed in their local communities.

In 2011, Encana

hosted the NEED Energy Conference for Educators in Denver, Colorado with over 120 educators from across the country

Five eighth grade science classes were busy researching various ways to make Lucile Erwin Middle School a more energy efficient place. Each class was challenged with coming up with a plan to achieve a different energy improvement goal. Every class was divided into teams of four to six students, each to come up with a clear plan for achieving the goal, a timeline, deciding which professionals would be needed, rationale, budget, cost savings and benefits to students.

The first period looked for ways to install daylight spectrum lighting in classrooms, while second period worked on bringing solar energy to the school. Third period looked for ways to make one specific system within the school fifteen percent more energy efficient. Fourth period planned out ways to save a total of 30 percent of the school’s utility costs within two years, while fifth period focused on installing

attending.

Encana’s contribution to NEED programming

provides over 1,000 teachers with energy curriculum and equipment annually. Launching in 2012 is the Encana Energy Efficiency in Our Schools program for Colorado – providing grants and training to schools to improve school building energy education and efficiency.

geothermal energy in the school. One other team of six students planned out and actually implemented a school-wide recycling program. Once the research and presentation preparation was finished, every team presented their proposals to peers, teachers, principals and school district officials. The hopes are to have the plans implemented into the school for future generations to enjoy.

www.NEED.org

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Connecticut

St. Thomas School Southington, CT Project Title: 7th and 8th Grade NEED Energizers Project Advisor: Pauline Pelczar

For our N.E.E.D. project, the seventh and eighth graders of St. Thomas School wanted to teach Kindergarten through sixth grade students about the different types of energy, conservation, reducing, reusing, and recycling.

To do this, the seventh and eighth graders split into groups of three and four students each. We then researched the ten types of energy and prepared skits. Each group took a different type of energy. Then, we presented the skits to grades K-6.

We also wanted to make sure that every grade learned as much as they could, so we split into our small groups again. Each group prepared a presentation for their grade. These presentations included PowerPoints, games, and interactive activities about conservation and the ten sources of energy.

We also did other projects such as collecting and recycling Capri Suns, Frito Lay bags, and ink cartridges.

We sold CFL’s and made placemats. Then we made bookmarks with energy tips and put them in the library for students to use.

We finished by giving Grades 3-6 a pre-test before the assembly and a post-test after the assembly. Through our efforts, the scores on this test increased by 19 %.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

FLORIDA

Florida schools participate in NEED workshops, receive grants and solar installations compliments of NEED’s partnership with FPL, and have the opportunity to learn about renewable energy and energy efficiency at Gulf Power sponsored Energy Expos and NEED workshops. More workshops, grants, and opportunities are planned for the 2012-2013 school year.

Florida

A.K. Suter Elementary School Pensacola, FL Project Title: Planting Seeds for Our Future Project Advisor: Deborah Pate

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2012 NEED Annual Report

This year we “planted seeds” of knowledge throughout our community by learning about alternative energy sources and teaching others what we had learned. We began our biggest NEED project ever…constructing a large school-wide garden using recycled materials. We recycled boards from a local marina for our raised flower beds and we went dumpster diving at a local flower nursery to rescue plants for our garden. We “planted seeds,” harvested crops, and donated vegetables to Manna Food Bank.

In September, our Suter Energy Savers sponsored a school-wide “Campus Clean-Up Day.” We made conservation bookmarks for our public library in March, and in December we worked with a local church to recycle 4,700 plastic bags that would be cut and woven into mats for the homeless. We played Energy Jeopardy at our Fall Festival and sold garden signs made from recycled boards.

During the year our energy team wrote energy messages on door hangers and we left them on the doors of the classrooms that we caught conserving energy. We recycled phone books and pop tops, and we emptied classroom recycle bins twice a week.

Wow! What a busy year we have had “Planting Seeds for Our Future!”

Florida Elementary Finalist

Floresta Elementary School Port St. Lucie, FL Project Title: Floresta NEED Team Project Advisor: Mollie Mukhamedov

Our project provided students opportunities to learn about energy sources, forms of energy, energy transformations, electricity generation, energy conservation and energy efficiency. Students took leadership roles as they taught others about what they learned. Guest speakers from FPL, the Florida Department of Citrus, the St Lucie County Extension office and the Florida Industrial Phosphate Research Institute were welcomed as guest speakers.

Student leaders maintained our school garden and helped plan for and plant Florida fruits and vegetables thanks to a grant from Florida Agriculture in the Classroom. The Update Earth musical gave students an opportunity to reach out to our community and educate them on energy sources and how to conserve energy. Sharing resources with other schools and educating others about energy has proven to be a team effort from our students and teachers.

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – WIND FOR SCHOOLS Working in partnership with Windpowering America, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and KidWind, NEED hosts workshops and provides curriculum to schools selected to be Wind for Schools sites. Wind for Schools sites receive a small wind installation, data monitoring to broadcast electricity generation data, and hands-on kits, curriculum, and teacher training.

Florida Elementary Finalist

Mariposa Elementary School Port St. Lucie, FL Project Title: Mariposa NEED’s YOU to Save Energy Project Advisor: Adam Archer

Our 5th grade classes started the NEED Project in September of 2011. To begin our NEED experience we began meeting on Thursdays from 3-5pm to work on energy. Also while we were in our science classes, we completed many different activities about energy. We learned that solar energy comes from the sun and is renewable. We learned that wind power is because of the heating of the earth’s surface. Wind energy is renewable.

We also completed an awesome activity called Pretzel Power. We were each given 10 pretzels for fuel and had to get from home to Near Town and Far Town. We figured out that if we were to put our pretzels together, just like carpooling, we could get to Far Town and back home with pretzels (fuel) leftover.

In February, we held our Science Energy Night at school. We played Energy Bingo, Energy Knockdown, Energy Memory, Energy Jumble, and Energy Pictionary.

Mr. Archer did a short presentation on what is NEED and about energy within our community. He also did a demonstration with vinegar and baking soda, to show how a chemical reaction is energy.

We chose to work on Solar and Wind energy because we live close to the beach in Florida and it is always windy here. Florida Power and Light is trying to put up wind turbines on our beach but they are not allowed because people are afraid that the birds will run into the blades, there is also some controversy about blocking peoples scenic views. Our school project is to share with our community and students that solar and wind powers are renewable and we need to work to make that our main energy source. www.NEED.org

39

Florida

Ferry Pass Middle School Pensacola, FL Project Title: FPMS Energy Management Team Project Advisor: Carolyn Wuest

This year we decided on the name for our energy club – The ENERGY EAGLES! Our goals for the year were to share the “Save a Light” Energy Star Campaign with students and their parents, teach a self-contained special classroom of sixth graders “Energy from the Sun,” learn about energy conservation, do energy audits of classrooms and offices, and learn about sustainability from Energy Services of Pensacola.

We were a little challenged by the math our teacher made us do when we were learning about the differences between incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs. We met her challenge, and took our math sheets and the pledge sheets home for our parents to see how much money they could save with the CFL bulbs.

The sixth grade students were fun to work with. They could do a lot by themselves, and we just had to help a little. We all had fun and the solar oven cookies turned out great – no leftovers.

Our school secretary was really shocked to see how many watts her older copier used compared to the newer copier. There was a big difference even when the copiers were off!

We also learned about sustainability from Mrs. Reynolds.

One of our students won the $100 savings bond contest for the best essay. We had a great year learning about energy and energy conservation!

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2012 NEED Annual Report

Georgia

Woodstock High School Woodstock, GA Project Title: Earth’s Pandora Project Advisor: Christine Lauer

Woodstock High School’s science department explored different aspects of environmental issues from sustainability, efficiency, protecting the environment, and researching different types of energy in order to decrease global warming. Many debate on the existence of global warming. However, climate change has become a huge problem. Today, Georgia is suffering from extreme drought that is not only affecting the environment but also the economy since Georgians cannot produce crops. London, Mexico, and other areas of the United States are also experiencing drought. We wanted to solve this problem and lessen the environmental impact of burning coal and having to depend on foreign oil.

Our goal was to raise awareness and explore renewable resources and alternative fuels for cars such as ethanol and other bio-fuels.

This year we started from the beginning of the school year. Right off, we had an informative yet fun Energy Carnival during school lunches. We featured off-the grid houses showing that it can be done. Many other events were held throughout the year in order to promote awareness and education. Our biggest is yet to come in the form of Greenstock, an annual solar powered concert.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

Illinois Elementary Finalist

HAWAII–HAWAII ENERGY In 2011, a new Hawaii program launched in partnership with Hawaii Energy. As the education partner for Hawaii Energy’s extensive energy outreach, training and efficiency efforts, NEED delivers energy workshops for teachers, supports student training efforts, manages a grant program for schools to expand their energy education efforts in the classroom, and works to make the best education programming available to Hawaii teachers and students. The program launched quickly and NEED is fortunate to work with Hawaii Energy leadership dedicated to making the program a success. As the program continues, NEED is honored to have Hawaii Energy in the NEED family and to have the opportunity to see how NEED can make an impact on

Hoover Math and Science Academy Schaumburg, IL Project Title: HMSA’s Energy Zoo, Too From A to Z! Project Advisor: Karen White

energy use in Hawaii schools and in Hawaii homes.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

ILLINOIS - COMED Teachers in northern Illinois are provided teacher training, Science of Energy Kits, and classroom sets of the Home Energy Efficiency Kits for students and families, as part of the ComEd energy education program. NEED and ComEd design teacher workshops to meet Illinois state standards while helping increase energy conservation at home and in school. A program expansion in 2011-2012 provided training and classroom resources to over 600 educators. In 2012-2013, NEED and ComEd will provide several new opportunities to schools to expand local energy education outreach and training. The program, one of the largest utility programs in the NEED network, reaches educators with many varieties of workshops at specific grade levels.

Thirteen S.H.A.R.E. Kids joined Hoover Math and Science Academy’s mission to make their new inquiry-based environment an exciting, innovative place to grow and learn. S.H.A.R.E. stands for Students at Hoover Acting Responsibly for the Earth, its Environment, and its Energy!

And we take our job seriously. Well, not too seriously!

There’s crazy, fun going on… ENERGY fun from A to Z! Conservation Critters ABC’s line the walls, as well as this week’s “Are You Smarter than a S.H.A.R.E. Kid?” question. Plastic bags are littering the halls of HMSA, but if you count them and read our “Pondering Plastic” posters you can earn more Energy Coupons to shop at the S.H.A.R.E. Store. Earth Week is an extravaganza: Make-a-Choice Monday, Take-a-Hike-or-Bike Tuesday, No-Waste Wednesday, Think-Hard Thursday, and Freshen-up Friday!

The S.H.A.R.E. Kids couldn’t do all this alone. We needed to recruit some energy experts. The fifth graders were perfect. They kicked off their energy quest with a visit from Energy by Design and received home conservation kits. Next they visited the new geothermal site at Sherman Hospital. Engineers from Northrop Grumman came to add to the fun and learning, challenging all to work as a team. Science of Energy stations and energy games galore helped energize these fifth graders. The new recruits were willing to help the S.H.A.R.E. Kids’ mission – energize the community! We’re sure you won’t forget Hoover’s ABC’s…All About…Believing, Building, and Changing…

I wonder what’s in store for us next year?

www.NEED.org

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Illinois

Frank C. Whiteley Middle School Hoffman Estates, IL Project Title: FUTURE ENERGY LEADERS: KIDS TEACHING KIDS Project Advisor: Kathleen Cochrane

In September, energy committees from our class set out to make a difference in our school and our community. Using creativity, with our earth in mind, we started to write scripts, draw energy related pictures, make flyers and prepare to teach others about each energy source and how to conserve them. Then we went out into our town by auctioning off a hand-painted rain barrel, advertising an energy-related musical, posting an educational video about energy on YouTube, and so much more.

Perseverance and teamwork helped us to reach our goals. Our class produced a musical, “Alice in Energyland”, full of songs, dancing and facts about resources. We also all participated in an Energy Carnival, which taught students in our school about energy through fun, exciting games and demonstrations. We promoted waste free lunch days. We even measured garbage to see if it decreased! We could not have done it without each other.

The motto of NEED is “Kids Teaching Kids”. You see it on T-shirts and the website. This year at Whiteley School we went further than that, we were kids teaching our community. We educated adults, teachers and, yes, kids, because they will be the future energy leaders.

Illinois

Richard Byrd Middle School Burbank, IL Project Title: Super Savers Project Advisor: Edward Fialek

We, the Super Savers of Byrd School, are trying to persuade people and students to save energy. We are teaching students and staff how important energy really is! We are hanging posters around school and having students do a survey of their homes and what type of light bulbs they use. These surveys will tell us if they use either energy saving things or not, like CFL bulbs or incandescent bulbs. We will be passing out refrigerator thermometers to staff and students to see if their refrigerators are set at the right temperature.

We can see if they are using too much energy.

We have sent a letter to the Mayor of Burbank and a school administrator, Mr. Ted Stec. We want to know if our community has ways of saving energy and if they are working. We are creating a coloring book for the younger students at our school. We also gave a brief presentation to them. We are building big posters on how to save energy, written in English, Polish, Spanish, and Arabic.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – SOLAR FOR DC SCHOOLS

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

Working in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, The U.S. Department of Energy, and The Washington, D.C. District Department of the Environment, NEED delivered solar energy curriculum and training to over 35 D.C. schools. As the District of Columbia continues to seek new ways to integrate energy efficiency and renewable energy in its schools and municipal buildings, these solar resources help students understand the science, technology and math concepts present in learning about solar energy.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

KENTUCKY

STATE SPOTLIGHT big difference. Thanks to their hard work, Kentucky NEED remains the top ENERGY STAR pledge driver in the education category.

High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop Kentucky NEED’s ninth annual High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop, held in partnership with the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence continues to impact energy efficient school design in Kentucky. School administrators, architects and engineers heard from design experts and administrators about a holistic, systems approach to school design and renovation.

As always, everyone’s favorites were the site visits to nearby high performance schools. Attendees participated in student-led tours and heard from the teachers and the professional design team on ways the building is enhancing the learning environment. When the first high performance workshop was held in 2003, there were NO Energy Star schools in the Commonwealth, we now have 154 Energy Star labeled K-12 schools.

VendingMiser Project 2011-12 was another successful year for the NEED program in Kentucky. Five hundred and nineteen educators attended one of 18 workshops held across the Commonwealth, facilitated by our eight regional coordinators. Our student energy team program continues to grow, with 164 active teams making a difference in their schools.

Program highlights include the following:

“Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR” Mini-grants Kentucky NEED students made a difference in their communities this year with support from the “Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR” mini-grants. In partnership with DEDI and Louisville Gas & Electric/ Kentucky Utilities (LG&E/KU) thirty Kentucky schools designed and delivered projects that educated their school communities about energy and encouraged them to take small, energy-saving steps that made a

Students helped to lower energy consumption and became energy educators, through the Kentucky NEED VendingMiser Project. Thirty-two student teams applied for the program, which qualified them to receive a complimentary VendingMiser, a device that lowers energy consumption of cold drink machines during non-use periods. Students conducted two week plug studies before and after the device installation and prepared a spreadsheet of the results. Teachers integrated the study into their science and math classes while energy managers assisted in data-collection training, making this a comprehensive educational study. Final results show an average 47% reduction in energy consumption.

Sponsors: Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence (DEDI); Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities (LG&E/KU); Duke Energy Kentucky; Kentucky Power/AEP

Partners: Sanders and Associates; Kentucky River Properties, LLC; Kentucky Green & Healthy Schools www.NEED.org

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Kentucky

James A Caywood Elementary School Edgewood, KY Project Title: Little Changes Can Make A BIG Difference!

Project Advisor: Renee Topmiller

Kentucky Junior Finalist

Richardsville Elementary School Bowling Green, KY Project title: Changing Habits, Changes the World Project Advisor: Manesha Ford

Our main goal throughout this year was to educate the students, staff and community on ways to save energy. We also focused on the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

We completed various activities to try to accomplish this goal.

This year we created an Energy Pledge to have students recite daily to remind them of their actions at school, at home and in the community. In the fall we set up a booth at the Fall Festival to give students and their families’ energy saving tips in a creative way.

We put together an ENERGY Week that had a variety of activities. Some of the activities were Making Grass Heads, collecting plastic bottles and yogurt cups and wearing GREEN. We concluded the week with the showing of the video we made. The video consisted of six skits that educated others about the importance and benefits of saving energy.

Our team reached out to the community by visiting the Emeritus Senior Living Center and completed a craft reusing yogurt cups.

Throughout all of these activities, we were hoping to show that “Little Changes Can Make a BIG Difference!”

This year we helped teach other students, teachers, and community members about energy. We wanted them to change their habits that are not energy saving to be energy wise and change the world for the better.

We started the year with a survey to plan activities. We decided to focus on energy awareness, energy conservation and recycling. To reach our goals we: UÊ *À Ìi`ÊÃV Ü `iÊÀiVÞV } UÊ >ÛiÊi iÀ}ÞÊ> `ÊÀiVÞV }ÊÌ «ÃÊ>ÌÊÌ Ü Ê iiÌ }ÃÊ> `Ê« ÃÌi`ÊÌ «ÃÊ on the community board UÊ `ÕVÌi`Êi iÀ}ÞÊ>Õ` ÌÃÊ> `ÊÀiV } âi`ʺ iÀ}ÞÊ-Ì>À» UÊ />Õ} ÌÊÌi>V iÀÃÊ> `ÊÃÌÕ`i ÌÃÊÕà }ÊÌ iÊ-V i ViÊ vÊ iÀ}ÞÊ Ì UÊ i `Ê> Ê iÀ}ÞÊ->Û }ÊV À }ÊV ÌiÃÌ UÊ >`iÊi iÀ}ÞÊ>Ü>Ài iÃÃÊà } ÃÊ> `ÊÀ `iÊ>Êy >ÌÊ Ê ÕÀÊ À ÃÌ >ÃÊ parade UÊ ÃÌi`Êwi `ÊÌÀ «ÃÊ> `ÊÌ ÕÀà Our community project was an Energy Fair at the Crossroads IGA. We advertised at school, IGA and AM Kentucky on WBKO. Warren Rural Electric and Southern Recycling partnered with us. We made displays about the sources of energy and energy conservation. People could learn from the displays, play “Spin the Energy Wheel” for a prize, enter a drawing for CFL bulbs and more. It was a lot of fun.

SHELL

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

NEED is honored to work with Shell throughout its areas of operations in the United States. In 2011, NEED and Shell Chemicals partnered with the American Chemistry Council to design and deliver the Chemistry of Energy Efficiency online curriculum module for teachers to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry and to allow students to explore the connection of chemistry to the energy efficiency products and technologies in use today. In addition to the chemistry module, NEED and Shell work together to host workshops in many areas of the country – providing training in Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana and Virginia. NEED was fortunate to have the opportunity to feature Shell Wind in its Career Currents newsletter – with an interview with Dick Williams, President of Shell Wind.

44 44

2012 NEED NEED Annual Annual Report Report 2012

Kentucky

Temple Hill Elementary School Glasgow, KY Project Title: Peace, Love, and Power to the People Project Advisor: Debbie Sherfey

Kentucky

Ballard County Middle School Barlow, KY Project Title: Ballard Middle Energy Team Project Advisor: Jennifer Solomon

We are the first student energy team that Temple Hill has ever had, and because of this, we have done many activities and received a variety of awards for our hard work and efforts. You can always find us completing tasks such as recycling, checking rooms, working on our Student Technology Leadership Project, and organizing new ways that our school can save energy. We have also placed switch plate reminders and computer monitor reminders throughout the building to further remind students and staff to save energy. The Energy Team has also taken several field trips.

Our team was also very fortunate to compete in the Student Technology Leadership Project this year. This wasn’t an ordinary event for Barren County. Our team placed in the “Top 10” at the State Conference. We set a new record for Barren County. In addition to this award, our school has received their Energy Star.

We were also recognized as Students of the Month for our district.

As a team, we have learned so much about energy, and this has been such a wonderful experience. Our student energy team is focused on helping our school and community become more aware of energy conservation.

The purpose of the Ballard Middle Energy Team is to implement an energy saving plan in order to reduce the energy consumption in the Ballard County Schools and to improve the learning and teaching environment for our students and teachers. Implementation of this plan will guide the district in achieving higher standards in energy and water use. The goals for this project are to make our school district want to become involved in our efforts to save energy, to involve the community in our effort to save energy, to help our school district’s facilities director reduce our energy consumption and costs, and to educate the students and staff in our district about energy conservation.

We used the Monitoring and Mentoring kit from the NEED project, as well as the Energy Flow Presentation to educate ourselves and our school about energy. We established a rewards system based on tickets. There are red tickets and green tickets; green means “Energy Saver”, and red means “Energy Waster”. Tickets are given and counted by grade level. Tickets are counted at the end of each month, and the winning grade receives a reward. The rewards encourage students to do more to get involved in saving energy.

WALMART FOUNDATION

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

Schools in Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Seattle and Washington, D.C. received solar installations, teacher training, and classroom curriculum and kits thanks to a grant from the Walmart Foundation. In 2010-2012, Solarbrations were hosted around the country to kick-off the program in each city. Over 300 teachers received training from coast to coast. The solar installations include data acquisition systems and web-based data output that allow solar schools throughout the NEED network to complete research and analysis lessons from NEED’s Schools Going Solar curriculum module.

www.NEED.org www.NEED.org

45 45

Kentucky

Harlow Early Learning Center Harrodsburg, KY Project Title: Kinetic Kindergarteners Project Advisor: Ellie Vandivier Primary Level School of the Year See page 23.

Kentucky

Cane Run Environmental Magnet Elementary School, Louisville, KY Project Title: High Performance Sustainable Tour Project Project Advisor: Darlene Horton Elementary Level Rookie School of the Year See page 29 .

Kentucky Senior Finalist

Adair County High School Columbia, KY Project Title: Energizing Adair County Project Advisor: Heather Spoon

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2012 NEED Annual Report

The Energy Technology Career Academy is built on a variety of different students, each with a strong suit that helps the Academy function as a team. Whether one of us is a hard working student that is good with their hands, a smart thinker, or someone who can look at a project from many different angles to solve the problem, we bring all of our personal skills together and are able to get a project started and finished as a team.

The Academy has a variety of classes and projects to prepare students for college and the real world. This school year’s projects included: ongoing biodiesel production, the district-wide Vending Miser project, the next generation solar panel assembly, and the inaugural Camp Energy. These projects gave the Academy students an opportunity to educate the students of a younger generation to become more energy conscious. While we primarily focused on educating the younger students, we ended up learning a lot as well.

With the help of the Appalachian Regional Commission and National Energy Education Development Project, we had a great school year with many beneficial projects and activities.

Kentucky

Locust Trace Agriscience Farm Lexington, KY Project Title: Project Advisor: Tracy Poff

As a NEED student at Locust Trace I am very involved in learning about energy sources and energy transformations.

All students here actively research methods to conserve energy and we always make an effort to pass on our knowledge to others. We teach the youth many ways they can be more energy efficient, while making the kids have fun at the same time. The youth observe and assist with the Science of Energy kits which showcase many types energy transformations.

Also we give tours around our facility to showcase and explain our energy conserving features that our net zero facility possesses. Our school hosted our first Energy & Sustainably fair this year which raised public awareness about energy and sustainability. The NEED students got to take part in informing the community and future Locust Trace students about energy by using the Science of Energy Kits.

For an additional leadership project a few NEED students and I represented our school at the Kentucky American Water Science Fair in the Energy and Transportation category. Our project was based around how we could modify a solar panel to mimic a plant and be more energy efficient. The idea for this project was sparked after learning about energy in our chemistry class. The margin to improve the efficiency of solar panels and save energy was so large that we wanted to help our school by conducting the experiment. We were drawn to finding a way our school can save energy and increase efficiency. We plan to visit Morehead State University to build a prototype soon!

Overall our school demonstrates a model to our community on how to conserve energy and use energy more efficiently. Our school focuses on informing the youth on energy conservation so as they become the new generation they will have the knowledge and skills to make a difference and share their knowledge they learned from Locust Trace NEED students to the people around them. In the end, our goal has been met – teaching the community all about energy and helping young individuals to grow up conscientious about where their energy comes from, how it gets to them, and how to conserve energy use to lead a more sustainable life.

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

CONOCOPHILLIPS AND PHILLIPS 66 ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and NEED have partnered to provide over 1000 educators with curriculum and training opportunities. The workshop series presents a unique opportunity for classroom teachers (K12) to learn about energy in a fun and exciting way! The workshops create awareness of today’s energy challenges and the importance of using energy wisely.

ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 sponsor class-

sets of Energy Infobooks and Science of Energy Kits for all participants. ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 support provides resources and training to teachers from Alaska to Florida and Massachusetts to California.

For more information visit: www.need.org/conocophillips and www.need.org/phillips66.

www.NEED.org

47

Louisiana

St. Margaret Catholic School Lake Charles, LA Project Title: Stewards for Tomorrow Project Advisor: Judy Reeves

St. Margaret Science Club can make the world a better place for the future. We must inform others of the steps that can be taken in order to preserve resources, energy, and of environmental concerns.

We have followed this standard of conduct in our numerous works to make the earth a better place to live in the future.

We have achieved many goals in our environmental plan. Our first project this year was community awareness about our recycling center. We went out into the community informing others about the importance and ease of recycling. We let them know about the accessibility of the recycling center and drop off points. Team Recyclers taught others about “TerraCycle” in the cafeteria by posting signs and walking tables explaining the importance and usage of recyclable materials. Our Beach Sweep was a huge success and was awarded the Most Participants Award. We placed markers on storm drains, passed out fliers, participated in an Adopt-a-Road program, and had a recycle (garage) sale. We recycle all paper, aluminum, and plastics at our school. Science of Energy Exhibits were presented by eighth graders and presented at our school picnic and at Tutein Park.

They taught students from first to sixth grade during their own Energy Expo.

There is always something someone can do to make the world a healthier place. We will continue to work to make a cleaner today for a greener tomorrow through our stewardship.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

Maine

Madawaska Elementary School Madawaska, ME Project Title: Madawaska Elementary is Energy-Wise Project Advisor: Gina Jandreau

We started our NEED Project in September 2011.

Fourth graders learned about energy and energy conservation through their science units, guest speakers, energy workshops, research, and handouts from MPS and those on the NEED site. Students entered an Earth Day Essay contest to share their knowledge.

Students helped to maintain and add pieces to an energy website which was developed with students three years ago.

The highlight was developing/videotaping/editing Public Service Announcements which were placed in a player on the site and televised on the local access television station, Channel 16 during the month of April.

Students publicized their activities through written news reports as part of a school newspaper, an on-line news report, and video news broadcasts, televised on the local access station, to educate the community on energy activities.

Another activity the students chose to do to help make a difference in the community was to encourage consumers to bring their own bags to the store when purchasing goods.

Students decided to develop a print with Home Energy Saving Tips to be placed on shopping totes. Our local printing company, agreed to help out with this project. Students used computer software to make their creation. This was sent to the printing shop where the bags were made. A poster and bags were displayed in early April in the school lobby.

Students with parents who own businesses in town were also given a poster with a few bags to sell.

Hopefully our efforts will help the students, their families, the school community and the local community to become more energy conscious.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

Massachusetts

MASSACHUSETTS – CAPE LIGHT COMPACT, NSTAR, AND DOMINION NEED programs are strong in Massachusetts thanks to the support of the Cape Light Compact, NSTAR, and Dominion. The Compact loans NEED kits and curriculum to classrooms, provides teacher training, and hosts many community education events throughout the year. NSTAR provides teacher training and curriculum related to energy efficiency and renewable energy to schools in the NSTAR service area. Dominion’s support of energy education workshops nationwide brings additional teacher training to communities near

The Forestdale School Forestdale, MA Project Title: iPhone4S – Ownership and Leadership Project Advisor: Laura Tanguilig

Dominion generating plants.

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – HYDROGEN, FUEL CELLS, AND INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGIES In 2011, the six-year U.S. Department of Energy sponsored Hydrogen Education program came to an end with the end of grant funding.

NEED is honored to have been the Department of Energy’s partner in this long-term and worthwhile program. The real value of this partnership is that NEED’s integration and delivery of hydrogen training and curriculum in its portfolio will continue long beyond the end of federal funding. The H2 Educate program and curriculum remains available and will continue to be updated and delivered as part of NEED’s core programming each year. NEED works with local sponsors and partners to provide classroom curriculum materials about hydrogen, transportation technologies, and fuel cells to teachers nationwide. In the six years of the program over 8000 teachers received training with the H2 Educate curriculum module and kit.

iPhone4S owns The Forestdale School’s solar panels! We memorized every array and inverter specification, and we can demonstrate how photons lead to electricity. We are sharing our knowledge with as many people as we can reach, with no end in sight!

We conducted energy experiments, wrote poems and persuasive essays, held classroom debates, and created a front lobby display for the whole school to see. We gave presentations to other classes and we stood tall when we presented at the Sandwich School Committee meeting that was broadcast live and re-aired on local television. We monitor the panels’ output in class and at home, and we have alerted other schools to potential problems with their photovoltaic systems. The process of teaching others helped us to master our subject.

Plans are in place to host an energy carnival, visit an incinerator and a wind turbine, and attend the high school’s environmental technology fair as special guests. In a school where paper and plastic recycling is the norm, where a vegetable garden and a homemade birdbath serve as landscaping, and “lights off” is practiced, we are making our own difference through energy education and communication. The future is bright for iPhone4S!

www.NEED.org

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Massachusetts

Bourne Middle School Bourne, MA Project Title: Energy and Education Project Advisor: Cynthia McCann

Massachusetts

Eastham Elementary School Eastham, MA Project Title: Energy Investigators Project Advisor: Maggie Brown Elementary Level School of the Year See page 23.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

The Bourne Middle School Energy Savers is an after school program offered to students in grades five through eight. It was started by a fifth grade teacher, Peggy McEvoy, eight years ago. Currently the program includes fourteen students and is overseen by Cindy McCann, a sixth grade teacher. The Energy Savers is supported by the school’s principal, Melissa Stafford.

The group’s focus is to help educate staff, students and community members about ways we can work to improve our Earth and conserve energy. We have been able to organize many events with the assistance of the Cape Light Compact and its educational liaison, Debbie Fitton. We have highlighted some of our events in our scrapbook. They include: an Energy Expo for students and this year for the community too. We were able to partner with the regional high school and for the first time, and had the pleasure of working with about thirty cadets from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

We decorated a portion of our school courtyard with holiday LED lights, created a “recycling robot” for the cafeteria, and had a campus clean–up. Thank you for taking the time to celebrate the Bourne Middle School Energy Savers. We look forward to expanding on our successes into the next school year.

Massachusetts

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, MA Project Title: Power-Down Project Project Advisor: Kate Crosby Senior Level Rookie School of the Year. See page 31.

Massachusetts Senior Finalist

Boston Latin School Boston, MA Project Title: Boston Latin School Youth Climate Action Network Project Advisor: Cate Arnold

Boston Latin School Youth Climate Action Network (BLSYC) is an environmental club at the oldest school in the country. This year an energy-saving lighting retrofit that we fought for was implemented, saving the city of Boston $33,000 annually. In October, we traveled to France to present our energy successes and effective use of partnerships with city officials. Then we launched an International League of Green Youth Ambassadors at the American Embassy. The students planned and delivered a four week Youth Green Job/Energy Audit Training Program resulting in new green teams and youth-led energy audits and energy action plans. We organized a culminating event with Energy Secretary Sullivan where program participants presented their energy successes.

A Teach-In planned by our committee focused Boston Latin School on sustainable energy and global climate change solutions. We launched a zero food-waste trial and plans for a school digester.

We pitched our proposal for a shared green roof with energy saving technologies to the Mayor, and hosted a community-vision event to establish a broad-based youth task force to lead the project forward.

We also planned our annual summit at MIT, mentored elementary students with energy audits, and led the youth portion of the Moving Planet Clean Energy Rally.

Massachusetts

Sandwich High School East Sandwich, MA Project Title: Sandwich NEEDS Solar Project Advisor: Gilbert Newton

Our names are Olivia Nelson and Daryan Lemire, and we are seniors in Gilbert Newton’s Environmental Technology Class at Sandwich High School, in East Sandwich, MA. For the past four months, we have engaged in this project-based course by focusing on the possibilities for solar energy in Sandwich. We have spent the semester visiting various solar panel sites in and around town, and interviewing government officials and leaders in the solar industry to learn more about the benefits of solar energy, and how it can help our town save money. Our main focus of interest is a proposed solar farm in Forestdale, MA, that would create energy that would be purchased by the town of Sandwich, and sold to NSTAR. We hope to educate the public through an Earth Day event in our town and through our Environmental Technology Expo. Through these and various other events (as described in our Portfolio), we hope to make a difference in the community, because Sandwich NEEDS Solar! Thank you for your time and consideration.

www.NEED.org

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Massachusetts

Harwich Community Learning Center Program, Harwich Port, MA Project Title: Energize for Our Environment Project Advisor: Sally Andreola Special Project of the Year See page 27.

Michigan

John F. Kennedy Elementary School Manistee, MI Project Title: Going Green Project Advisor: Constance Josvai Elementary School of the Year See page 23.

STATE SPOTLIGHT MICHIGAN – MICHIGAN OIL & GAS PRODUCERS EDUCATION FOUNDATION & CONOCOPHILLIPS Educators in Michigan attend workshops, learn from energy speakers from the Michigan Oil and Gas Producers Education Foundation, and receive energy curriculum and hands-on kits compliments of a variety of Michigan sponsors. Even more is planned for the 2012-2013 school year.

Michigan

James Madison Elementary School Manistee, MI Project Title: Project Advisor: Dana Dobis

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2012 NEED Annual Report

Our school is now a Kindergartner Center. We no longer have other grades at Madison.

I wanted to continue with recycling. I taught my students the importance of recycling, an introduction of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I wanted my kindergartners to be aware of all the waste there is in the world.

We had a school-wide assembly to teach the other kindergartners what we at Madison school recycled, why we do recycle, and where the recycling center is located at our school.

My students led the assembly, answered questions and taught the other classrooms all about recycling.

Later in the year we introduced Energy Ant to all the classrooms.

Several students went to a classroom with Energy Ant in hand and taught that there is more to going green than just recycling. My students taught the importance of turning off lights, making sure the faucets didn’t drip, etc. Energy Ant was a great teaching tool, and it was easy for the kids to do the teaching with the Ant. This project has fostered lifelong energy conservationist!

Remember “Everyday is Earth day!”

Nebraska Junior Finalist

St. Isidore School Columbus, NE Project Title: Nebraska Excellent Energy Defenders Project Advisor: Megan DeWispelare

Nevada Elementary Finalist

McDoniel & Morrow Elementary Schools Henderson, NV Project Title: Nature Ninjas Project Advisor: Tanya Guarino, Kimberly Carriero, Michelle Kazel

NEW YORK

This year the sixth grade students at Saint Isidore School set their goals high. We planned to teach lessons to the younger students in the building, present NEED Energy On Stage plays, conduct energy experiments from the NEED curriculum, and educate the public on energy consumption and conservation.

We devised a plan to achieve these goals through the 20112012 school year. Once we had our plan and our goals set, we attended weekly meetings. At these weekly meetings we listened to speakers explain about different energy sources. We worked in our Energy workbooks, and took home an energy detectives kit to analyze our homes. After we looked at how our homes used energy, we used a Kill-A-Watt meter to do an energy audit. From this information we created energy pamphlets to share with the public. During our weekly meetings we also planned our Energy Fair, Energy Carnival and Plays.

During our weekly meetings we also planned how we were going to complete our recycling tasks. We competed in a nationwide contest where we placed third!!! We were very excited and it showed because all of our hard work paid off. I can say that I have enjoyed this year in NEED. Before we taught lessons in the classrooms, we learned about energy. Science labs were conducted with NEED kits. Field trips to Nevada Solar One and the Hoover Dam taught us all about solar and hydropower!

Did you know over 300 million children worldwide are without shoes? That is why we hosted charity drives “Soles 4 Souls” and “Clothes 4 Souls.” We collected over 6,000 pairs of shoes!

Did you know there are enormous geysers of plastic in our oceans? A video inspired us to extend our recycling program to “Cough up the C.A.P.S.” We collected tens of thousands of plastic caps. Collect And Protect Sea-life!

We created 3D models and presented them at our “Energy Evening.” We invited Channel 3 News to share in activities about energy, electricity, and more. We recycled printers, ink cartridges, batteries, and old cell phones for domestic violence victims.

Our school celebrated Earth Hour outside, using NEED Games and Icebreakers. Next, we hosted an Energy Carnival with games made out of recycled materials. Finally, we wrote an energy-preamble for everyone to sign!

Join us, the Nature Ninjas, to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and REFUSE!

STATE SPOTLIGHT

With the support of National Fuel, NEED provides workshops on energy efficiency and climate change and incorporates the Saving Energy Kit and Home Energy Efficiency Kit into all classroom programs. Students receive Home Energy Efficiency Kits to take home and use with their families to help reduce energy use at home and reduce energy bills too. Working in partnership with the Buffalo Sabres Hockey team, schools work to improve energy education in their schools and compete for a chance to visit Sabres team members. In a new program with the Syracuse City School District, NEED assists in the delivery of environmental education programming as part of SCSD’s successful Environmental Protection Agency.

www.NEED.org

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North Carolina Elementary Finalist

Forestville Road Elementary School Knightdale, NC Project Title: USS STAR Kids Project Advisor: Renée Roddick

STAR COMMAND: STAR fleet command has issued the USS STARS to help earth, especially Forestville Road Elementary. The Captain selected students who would help promote energy education, help students, teachers, families, and community members learn to save energy.

STAR LOG: At the Fall Festival, we had NEED activities, recycling fortune tellers, and we made recyclable tic-tac-toe boards to sell as a fundraiser. At the Christmas parade, we teamed up with the Student Council and promoted our energy tips with large posters and passed out our famous energy tip bookmarks. At the Health Fair, we brought our “Why Save Energy” display board to set up along with our 10 fact NEED resource posters.

We also had Ms. Becki from FEED the BIN Recycling program to talk to the school and to the club about how we can recycle better. Within the school, we continued to do the FEED the BIN recycling program. The S.T.A.R. kids collected recyclable materials every Thursday afternoons from the classrooms, had morning announcements that educated the teachers and students on energy information, and made goals on how to recycle more and get more students and staff involved in making our school green. We went into the classrooms to promote energy education with plays and activities to teach the younger students about the earth’s resources and how we can conserve them.

CAPTAIN’S LOG: Mission accomplished - USS STAR kids have worked hard this year educating Forestville Road Elementary and the community in conserving our resources by recycling, reusing, reducing, and staying green.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

North Carolina

John Van Lindley Elementary School Greensboro, NC Project Title: Captain Energy and the Energy WISE guys Project Advisor: Lori Attias

This year at our school we have been saving energy! We went around the school to see if people were saving or wasting energy. We recorded what energy was being wasted, where it was being wasted, and how it was being wasted. If we aren’t smart about our energy use, we will keep hurting the environment.

To educate our school, we made a video. It featured Captain Energy and the Energy Wise Guys. In it, we went around the school and found things that were wasting energy and asked the teachers to turn them off.

At the beginning of Energy Wise, we did a secret audit, to see where energy was wasted. After we gathered the information, we told the school the results.

Our teacher asked an energy play to come to our school and it was a big hit! It was funny and taught everyone more ways to save energy and other scarce resources. Each family could order a free energy kit.

The school with the most kits ordered will win a thousand dollars!

In November, our school won the energy banner!

We saved eighteen percent on our energy bill. It is very fun doing Energy Wise and we will continue to do our part to help save energy!

North Carolina Elementary Finalist

Ogden Elementary School Wilmington, NC Project Title: Ogden’s Green Machine Project Advisor: Mindy Nicoll

North Carolina

Sedgefield Elementary School Greensboro, NC Project Title: We Are Turned On to Turning It Off! Project Advisor: Cheryl Kaufman

Ogden’s Go Green Team is made up of 15 very determined 4th and 5th grade girls who were looking not only to help save the environment but to make a lasting impression here at Ogden.

The team’s first project was to challenge one another to a scavenger hunt throughout the county to find environmentally friendly objects and items. They found many things but thought there was room for improvement and used this to create their mission for the year. They wanted to reach as many people as they could and they accomplished this through our school events.

We are the largest elementary school in the county therefore when we host an event here at school we can reach a lot of people. The team hosted a recycling game at our school’s fall carnival and reached over 1,000 people! They also had a solar booth during our Earth Day Celebration which 670 kids passed through throughout the day.

The team also did their part in learning about energy and where it comes from through various NEED activities. They now have a strong knowledge of renewable and non-renewable resources and why it is important to explore all of our energy options.

Last year our team only had five members, this year we have sixteen! We have specialists who handle photography, documents, computer work, and communications. We have patrols that monitor energy use in the school.

We have done some special things. The biggest thing is that we went to City Hall and trained the Department of Energy employees on conserving energy in their building. We did it just like we do at school, to help them with the City of Greensboro Sustainability Challenge. We used a PowerPoint to help teach them.

Many important officials from our school district and the city and the City Council members came.

We went to Smith High school and learned many things. We went to different stations to see demonstrations. We had an assembly to tell everyone to save energy. We had Duke Energy’s Energized Guyz come and do a funny program. The UNCGreensboro Environmental Solutions team came and taught us how to save water.

One of our most exciting events was meeting with the officials from the Greensboro Department of Energy and from people from Washington, D.C. at our school! We talked about energy and did demonstrations for them. One activity was a comparison between a CFL and an incandescent bulb. www.NEED.org

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North Carolina

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

U.S. ENERGY ASSOCIATION AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – OFFICE OF FOSSIL ENERGY Stokesdale Elementary School Stokesdale, NC Project Title: Energy/Environment Wise Project Advisor: Deb Maher

In a partnership with the United States Energy Association (USEA) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, NEED created the Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage curriculum module and training in 2010. For 20122013, an updated curriculum guide is available with integration of new utilization strategies and technologies, and workshops are available in up to 10 communities around the country. The Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage curriculum module is designed to integrate with NEED’s cli-

We are the Energy WISE Team. We are trying to teach other people about energy. We learned about energy and then we went to all the classes in the school to teach about what we learned. We did patrols before school and after school to remind everyone to save energy.

We learned how to use a Kill-A-Watt meter. We learned about different light bulbs. We helped save energy and money for our school. We taught our parents about energy.

North Carolina

Northern Middle School Greensboro, NC Project Title: Northern Light Savers Project Advisor: Tameka Jordan

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2012 NEED Annual Report

mate change module, energy efficiency modules, and oil and natural gas activities. Teachers attending NEED workshops receive the curriculum and often the opportunity to tour carbon capture, utilization, and storage facilities.

The Northern Energy WISE Team is back and we had a successful school year developing ways to educate our staff, students, and community about energy conservation. We did more than the simple things like recycle or save water. We went a step further this year and got our community involved.

Over the school year, we made and displayed energy saving posters, and created video clips for the entire school to view. We submitted an article to our local newspaper to get the word out so people in the community would begin to save energy. We also published in our school newsletter. The staff and community were encouraged to request free energy kits from Duke Energy.

We continued to conduct monthly energy patrols around the school. A few members of the energy club performed the Energy on Stage skits provided by NEED and educated our peers on energy.

We held an Energy Awareness Week which included more energy trivia, daily energy saving tips, and a Carpool Day during which we gave out reminders for energy kits and distributed pencils made of recycled newspaper. We ended the week with a performance from the Energized Guyz. The more energy we save today means more we have for tomorrow!

North Carolina Rookie Finalist

Northwest Middle School Winston- Salem, NC Project Title: Energy Ambassadors on the Move Project Advisor: Iris Mudd

North Carolina

Lucy Ragsdale High School Jamestown, NC Project Title: Ragsdale’s Green Team Project Advisor: Ben Medlin

The Northwest Middle School Energy Ambassadors Club had the goal of educating students, parents, faculty and the public in areas of water and energy conservation.

We began by educating ourselves about various ways of conserving water and energy. We explored the concept of phantom loads. This was followed by the opportunity to calculate kilowatt usage and how individuals can save money by using less energy.

We investigated ways in which our school can save money in regard to reducing phantom loads and practicing better stewardship when it comes to energy waste. Since our school is old, we investigated the relationship between single and double pane windows. After conducting a window count, we calculated the amount of energy that could be saved if the windows were replaced with double pane windows.

Our activities extended into the community in order to share with others what we had learned. We produced bookmarks for elementary and middle school libraries and Boys Scouts. We developed an energy conservation presentation which we gave to our local Boy Scouts. Additional education initiatives focused on energy conservation presented through posters, public announcements, activity packets (Boy Scouts), bookmarks, school newsletters, and home education activities.

This year we formed the Green Team. Our mission was to reduce energy usage and educate people on ways to conserve energy at work and at home. We feel that we were successful in our efforts due to many factors: reduction in our energy bill by twenty percent, students making conscious efforts to conserve energy, and teachers taking our practices home to help reduce their costs. We began by developing seven projects that were of interest. These included activities such as peer and community awareness, recycling, plug load studies, as well as audits to our classrooms and athletic ďŹ elds.

We decided to focus our efforts on the freshman, especially with all ninth graders located in a separate building. This way our efforts would carry on as the students progress through the grades. We began our project with a lunch expo and posters educating the staff and our peers. We performed secret audits on classrooms and followed up by performing checks every other week. We promoted recycling in hopes to increase both the amount we recycled and the number of people who participated in recycling. We performed audits of appliances, lights, and our building to create a report and proposal to our principal. www.NEED.org

57

North Carolina

Rockingham Early College High School Wentworth, NC Project Title: Fueling Our Minds with Knowledge to Save the Fuel on Our Planet Project Advisor: Kimberly ThompsonHairston The Rockingham Early College High School ninth grade Earth Science class focused on six goals around the theme of energy awareness. For each of these, we wanted to educate ourselves, our peers, our families, Rockingham Community College, and the community.

We began by educating ourselves about the types of energy we use on our planet. We then studied ways we can conserve energy. We explored the concept of phantom loads. This was followed by the opportunity to calculate kilowatt usage and how individuals can save money by using less energy.

We investigated ways in which our own school can save money in regard to reducing phantom loads and practicing better stewardship when it comes to energy waste. We have a unique school setting because we are located on a college campus. We conducted a campus audit analyzing lighting, doors, vending and drink machines, and computers. We made numerous recommendations to the college and vendors on ways to reduce energy use. We also became stewards by modeling energy conservation.

Our activities extended into the community in order to share with others what we had learned. One of these activities was producing energy coloring books for a kindergarten class. We developed an energy conservation presentation which we presented to every student in our school. We had an assembly from the Alliance for Climate Education in which the entire college campus was invited to attend. Additional education initiatives focused on energy conservation presented through door hangers, school website postings, YouTube videos, an open house, and school emails.

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2012 NEED Annual Report

North Carolina

T. Wingate Andrews High School High Point, NC Project Title: The Green Team is Moving On Project Advisor: Kathleen Melious

Nine student members of T. Wingate Andrews High School formed our action team. We wanted to ďŹ nd ways to study science and apply it to make the world a better place. Along with this goal, we wanted to be exemplars for the other students and adults. We set out on this journey by designing and actualizing many projects and events. This journey required us to do research, write grants, learn about alternative energy sources, improve our presentation skills, and to get our peers and faculty on board to save energy and augment our environment.

This journey started with the October Greenway Clean Sweep, and continued with events such as Energy Day at North Carolina A&T, environmental studies and labs, Glow Green day at our school, school and home energy audits, a recycling campaign, and a visit to the Piedmont Environmental Center. We researched, studied, and built with energy kits, and participated in the Energy Ambassador Program. Also, we are conducting yearlong experiments in which we are studying many current problems within the environment caused by climate change and human negligence.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

OHIO The Ohio Energy Project (OEP) experi-

for OEP continues to be the Energy Sources

program provided information to teachers and

enced another hugely successful year develop-

Tour. Teachers board a bus to visit a variety

their students about the benefits of smart grid

ing innovative methods to provide energy edu-

of energy sites across Ohio that demonstrate

technologies and showed how these technolo-

cation and leadership opportunities to Ohio’s

various energy sources and production, their

gies can make their homes, schools and com-

students and teachers. Youth Energy Summits,

applications, and other science concepts.

munities more energy efficient.

Energy Workshops, and Energy Fairs were

The Environmental Careers for Ohio’s Stu-

held across the state to educate teachers and

dents has been extremely successful, having

iÀÆÊ *Ê" ÆÊ >ÞÌ Ê* ÜiÀÊEÊ } ÌÆÊ6iVÌÀi ÆÊ

students about energy-related issues. OEP’s

reached 250 high school student leaders

Ohio Department of Development/Commu-

Energy Efficiency Education Program empow-

across the state as it aligns the state’s best and

nity Services; American Municipal Power

ered students and teachers to conserve energy

brightest high school students with energy-re-

and

at home using energy conservation kits, result-

lated technology and research currently be-

Electric Division; Worthington City Schools;

ing in a significant energy savings across the

ing performed across Ohio. The Energy Bike

Honda of America; Ohio Fuel Cell Corridor;

state. This program has been extremely suc-

continues to be built by middle school girls

NiSource/Columbia Gas; Ohio Rural Elec-

cessful and we are planning to ship 54,000

from Ohio school districts during the summer

tric Cooperatives; Martha Holden Jennings

energy conservation kits throughout Ohio in

AEGIS (Activating and Energizing Girls in Sci-

Foundation; Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation;

the upcoming year. The funding partners for

ence) program. Energy Bikes are also being

Ohio Propane Education Research Coun-

this program are AEP Ohio, Columbia Gas,

sold across the nation to utilities, educational

cil; Marathon Ashland Petroleum; Industrial

Dayton Power and Light, Ohio Rural Electric

organizations and school districts.

Energy Users; Energy Optimizers, USA;

Cooperatives and Vectren.

Major Sponsors: American Electric Pow-

Member

Communities;

Westerville

OEP partnered with AEP Ohio on a ground-

Niagara Conservation Corporation; Office

Similar to summers past, the number

breaking demonstration gridSmart program in

of Energy and the Environment at the Ohio

one professional development opportunity

central Ohio school districts. The gridSmart

State University.

Ohio Primary Finalist

Annehurst Elementary School Westerville, OH Project Title: Time for Change Project Advisor: Julie Pierron, Erica Layne, Kelli Stuckey

The goals of our energy project focused on observing and making changes within our classrooms and community. First, we investigated changes made by the sun, wind, magnets and ourselves as we experienced inquiry-based activities. We observed the sun’s effect on candy pieces, growing plants, compost, solar toys, and a solar oven. We discovered the power of the wind and how quickly that energy changes. Ramps and various surfaces change the speed and direction of balls, cars, and other objects. We learned about energy sources and recycling.

Our teachers looked for growth in our knowledge through our writing samples, visual displays (posters) and NEED Primary Polls.

Technology was used to educate ourselves and our families.

We used our knowledge of the sun and wind to share energy activities with the kindergarteners. Our partnership with the Annehurst Garden Club has helped us create compost for our rain gardens.

We’ve educated students AND teachers in our school by creating posters, reporting energy news and patrolling how the school uses energy. Finally, we helped our neighbors learn by writing letters to the local paper.

www.NEED.org

59

Ohio

Annehurst Elementary School Westerville, OH Project Title: Annehurst Conservation Team (ACT) Project Advisor: Marsha Siefker

Our 5th Annual Annehurst Community Energy Fair was the highlight of our year. The Annehurst Conservation Team (ACT) hosted this evening event for our Annehurst students (K-5) and parents. With help, materials and resources donated by NEED, OEP, and the Westerville Electrict Division, ACT developed, designed, and manned fifteen stations with games,

experiments, and questions designed to teach participants about energy related topics, energy usage, and energy conservation. The fifteen stations also covered more than 90% of our 5th Grade Ohio Content Standards. All stations were hands-on, inquiry based, and interactive. Participants earned “Energy Bucks” to be “cashed in” at the Energy Store. The Westerville Electric Division donated over 200 CFL bulbs and 120 goodie bags, and OEP let us borrow the Energy Bike, various pre-made energy stations, games and materials. OEP and fifth grade families donated the Energy Store Items.

Other Annehurst Conservation Team (ACT) highlights include: UÊ i }ÊÃi iVÌi`ÊÌ Êà >ÀiÊ ÕÀÊ> Õ> Ê iÀ}ÞÊ > ÀÃÊ>ÌÊÌ iÊ£ÎÌ Ê annual Student Achievement Fair on November 15, 2011 Ohio School Board Association’s Capital Conference and Trade Show.

UÊ "ÕÀÊxÌ Ê Õ> Ê{Ì Ê À>`iÊ iÀ}ÞÊ > À UÊ "ÕÀÊwÀÃÌÊiÛiÀÊ£ÃÌÊ À>`iÊ iÀ}ÞÊ > À UÊ £ää¯Ê«>ÀÌ V «>Ì Ê ÊÌ iÊ" *Ê/ à ÀÌÊ } Ê ÌiÃÌ UÊ >ÃÃÀ Ê iÃà ÃÊÕÌ â }ÊÌ iÊ ÊÜiLà ÌiÊ> `Ê >ÌiÀ > à UÊ VÌ Û Ì iÃ]ÊVi ÌiÀÃ]ÊÃÌ>Ì ÃÉ ÌÃÊvÀ Ê" * UÊ £ää¯Ê«>ÀÌ V «>Ì Ê ÊÌ iÊ" *Ê iÊ iÀ}ÞÊ-ÕÀÛiÞ UÊ /Ü ÊiV }ÞÊÀi >Ìi`Êwi `ÊÌÀ «ÃÊÌ Ê- >À Ê7 `à UÊ Ê vÌ É ÀÃÌÊ À>`iÊ ÀL ÀÊ >ÞÊ À>ÝÊ VÌ Û ÌÞ Activities/projects in the works for the remainder of the year include: UÊ À }Ê> Õ Vi i ÌÃÊ UÊ / iÊ `iÛi « i ÌÊ vÊ >Ê ÃV Ü `iÊ iÀ}ÞÊ iÜà iÌÌiÀÉ pamphlet

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

Ohio

U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION NEED continues an exciting partnership with the Energy Information Administration in support of the very popular Energy Kids website and its roving mascot Energy Ant. Teachers nationwide continue to share how much they appreciate EIA’s Energy Kids site and the time and effort that goes into making the website useful, educational, and balanced for students and teachers. Energy Ant continues to visit energy facilities and write about the trips in the Energy Ant Journal on Energy Kids. NEED and EIA work together on the Energy Industry Study Program to engage EIA employees in learning about various sectors of the energy industry with timely discussions with energy professionals and field experiences to generating facilities, energy infrastructure facilities, and more.

60

2012 NEED Annual Report

Heritage Middle School Westerville, OH Project Title: Plug Into Energy Project Advisor: Debbie Pellington, Nyesha Clayton, LaVanya Watkins, Jason Tucker Junior Level School of the Year

See page 25.

Ohio

Oakwood High School Dayton, OH Project Title: Cut Back. Cut Down. Conserve Project Advisor: Tony Rainsberger, Heidi Steinbrink

The goal of Oakwood High School Energy Team is to further the education and awareness of today’s energy problems and their solutions.

In each of our activities and training sessions, we emphasize the importance of educating our society to make a positive change in the world.

We have four driving goals: UÊ iÀ} âiÊ"ÕÀÊ*iiÀà UÊ /i>V ÊÌ iÊ ÕÌÕÀi UÊ Ã« ÀiÊÌ iÊ Õ ÌÞ UÊ Û }Ê"> Ü `Ê ÀÜ>À` By doing so, the word of energy conservation and efficiency affects all aspects of our community. We zoned in on “Moving Oakwood Forward” this year, to make our school a living model of what we represent.

Ohio Special Project Finalist

Westerville City Schools Westerville, OH

www.NEED.org

61

Ohio

William Henry Harrison High School Harrison, OH Project Title: Hope for the Future Project Advisor: Steve Brickner

STATE SPOTLIGHT

The Harrison High School Ohio Energy Project group decided that our community wasn’t green enough. So, we set out to make the City of Harrison energy efficient. We decided on eight major goals that we wished to enact to help Harrison conserve energy and recycle more. We have had an extremely busy year making a difference in the community by inspiring and educating others.

Our Ohio Energy Project group traveled to several elementary schools to perform events for school children to educate them about energy. We started a district wide recycling program to reduce our amount of waste. We also took several field trips to better educate ourselves in order to be able to make a significant difference in the community. One of our proudest accomplishments was becoming Engineers without Borders after learning of the tropical rainforest depletion in countries like Rwanda. The lack of firewood for creating heat and for cooking inspired us to create biomass briquettes to provide fuel for them to cook with so their survival is ensured.

Our group is confident that we have made a difference and helped conserve energy in our school and in our community.

Rhode Island

RHODE ISLAND For a small state, Rhode Island is BIG in energy education. Hosting over eight workshops a year for teachers and students, NEED’s programming in Rhode Island covers the science of energy, energy sources, wind and solar energy, and home and school building energy efficiency. NEED participates in the Rhode Island conference of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership and provides resources to school districts working to reduce energy consumption in school buildings.

With the support of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, Dominion and National Grid, hundreds of teachers and students are reached each year.

62

2012 NEED Annual Report

Park View Middle School Cranston, RI Project Title: PV Cougars Project Advisor: Joanne Spaziano, Nancy DeCosta, Sheila Hopkins Junior Level School of the Year

See page 25.

Rhode Island

Scituate Middle School North Scituate, RI Project Title: Project Advisor: Ruth Trainor

Rhode Island

Scituate High School Scituate, RI Project Title: Scituate High School NEED Project Project Advisor: Shannon Donovan Senior Level School of the Year

See page 26.

What an exciting year for Scituate Middle School NEED club! Our group grew from five in the 2010/2011 school year to a group of seventeen this year. This group took on learning about hydro power and wind generators and did a thorough job studying solar power. To further enhance their study of solar power the group created three different solar cars to race in Rhode Island’s Junior Solar Sprint.

We were fortunate to have the support of a retired Industrial Technology teacher who did an extensive study of mechanics and engineering with them as part of the cars’ development. Our group participated in the Scituate High School Community Night where we raised funds for our club and presented to the community about our studies. As part of our commitment to sustainable living, we participated in the annual plant sale. We were also able to use several units from NEED’s Science of Energy Curriculum to examine thermal energy.

www.NEED.org

63

Rhode Island Special Project Finalist

Hope High School Providence, RI Project Title: Energy Saving School Renovation/E-Waste Recycling Project Advisor: John Gallo

Hope High’s Energy Club worked hard this year bringing awareness to our peers and community about the importance of energy education and conservation. When the school year started Hope was doing a renovation that incorporated energy savings techniques and products in an effort to move towards a “Net Zero Energy” school. This provided us with the opportunity to educate peers and staff about how the technology worked. One of the ways we did this was by using our photovoltaic kits to provide solar energy information about the panels that were being installed to other science classes within our school.

One of our biggest projects this year was our E-Waste Awareness and Recycling project. Electronics are constantly becoming obsolete and our school surveys indicated that no one knew what to do with electronics when they no longer wanted them, nor did they understand the benefits of responsibly recycling them. We worked with several community partners to ensure that we could bring awareness to the largest amount of people. We worked hard with several community partners to generate awareness and put on a recycling event that pulled in 11850 lbs of electronic waste and incorporated over 500 community members.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

TENNESSEE The Department of Economic and Com-

4H programs. TEEN conducted workshops

in energy education by classroom teachers

munity Development (ECD) sponsors Tennes-

to train 4H professionals who are participat-

and is offering two NEED Camps for Teach-

see’s K-12 Energy Education Program. The

ing in the project. Each participating county

ers during the summer of 2012. These camps

program, entitled Tennessee Energy Educa-

received funding to purchase the four NEED

provide training and resources to conduct

tion Network (TEEN), provides training and

4H Energy kits, which teach the science of

comprehensive energy education programs

resources to classroom teachers and other

heat energy, light energy, mechanical ener-

in their schools using the NEED curriculum.

educators, incorporating NEED as a corner-

gy, and chemical energy along with the en-

NEED, ECD, and the Department of Edu-

stone resource for comprehensive, curricu-

ergy resources that fall under each of these

cation, Energy Efficiency Schools Initiative

lum-based energy education in schools and

forms of energy. “The 4H Energy Program”

hosted three Energy Management Work-

for student-led community outreach activities

has made a positive impact on thousands of

shops for schools and school districts across

promoting energy efficiency and conserva-

students.

Tennessee. As schools seek ways to reduce

tion.

The 4H-ers conduct community outreach

budgets, saving energy is often a quick and

The 2011-2012 school year built on the

events reaching people with energy-saving

success of the previous year with a partner-

tips and other information. They collect pledg-

Teachers can access NEED curriculum

ship with the University of Tennessee to con-

es for the Change the World, Start with En-

online. As resources are available, teacher

tinue the 4H Energy Program. This project

ergy Star campaign and recruit homeowners

workshops and hands-on kits are available.

involved counties across the state with the

to complete the TVA Home Energy Survey.

Individual state curriculum correlations are

NEED curriculum designed especially for

64

2012 NEED Annual Report

TEEN continues to promote participation

cost-free way to do it.

available here.

Tennessee Primary Finalist

West Carroll Elementary School Trezevant, TN Project Title: Energy In Our Lives Project Advisor: Martha Vann

Tennessee

Robert E. Lee Elementary School Tullahoma, TN Project Title: Turn Words into Actions – Turn Actions into Results!

Project Advisor: Kathy Hagler and Sherry Roepke

Being on the Energy Team really rocks. We have had so much fun this year. At our first ever meeting, we looked at the sun through special glasses and did some really neat experiments with solar cells and solar beads. At other meetings we went on virtual field trips to learn about types of renewable energy and then did experiments. We also took some really great real life field trips. We went to visit our county’s electric department and the recycling plant. We learned a lot about how our county uses and saves energy.

Being on the Energy Team means you not only learn about energy, but you can teach others about energy too. We sponsored activities at school and in our towns to help people learn about energy and recycling. One of our favorite things was doing a workshop for 1st grade students at WC Primary School.

We enjoyed doing workshops at WC Elementary for 4th, 5th & 6th grade students, too. We all like teaching other people about energy. The hardest thing we have done this year is try to figure out how many polar bears there are. Who thought up that game anyway?

In the school year the energy team has done three energy related skits. The first skit was done at Robert E Lee; we showed them different types of motion forces. The second skit was done at the Tullahoma’s City Hall; our tem showed them, and everyone who were watching, how to save money and energy. Our last skit was about which was best energy efficient light bulb as a Harry Potter parody. Soon after the second skit, we made a float with decorations that were out of old bottles, cans and other reusable items. Then, we had our 3rd annual bottle battle. It is when we have the whole school bring in bottles to see who can bring the most bottles in for us to recycle: and in total we brought about 23,000. Our city’s mayor, Mayor Curlee, came to our energy team and answered our questions about how energy efficient the city hall was. A few days later, we got an energy audit on the city hall: we suggested many ideas on how too make Tullahoma’s City Hall more energy efficient. We also picked up trash on school property and on the street that our energy team adopted.

www.NEED.org

65

Tennessee

Carroll County 4-H Huntingdon, TN Project Title: Energy Education Project Advisor: Kenneth Herndon

We are members of the 4-H Energy Team. We had to fill out an application and give it to Mr. Kenny explaining why we wanted to be on the team. I wanted to be on the team after seeing all the experiments we did in 4-H. We learned how cars can run on water, why stuff glows in the dark and how beads can change colors in the light. We also learned things on our Tennessee state test like elastic energy, chemical energy and gravitational energy. We studied the forms we use energy in like light, electricity, heat, sound, and motion. We got to make videos and put on the 4-H web site on YouTube. A lot of people have watched our videos and learned about energy from us. We plan to set up at Wal-Mart and talk to people about using energy saving light bulbs.

Very engaging with my students and help increase their LEAP test scores by providing hands on activities. ~Elementary Science Teacher, Louisiana

Tennessee Senior Finalist

Franklin County High School AFJROTC Energy Team Winchester, TN Project Title: Cross into the Green Project Advisor: Everett Smith

66

2012 NEED Annual Report

Our goal was to reach out to our school, community and Middle Tennessee and get as many people involved in energy education as possible. We drove to the NEED Project’s Annual Youth Awards Program last year and brainstormed on our trip back. The plan we came up with was to make presentations to the public, mentor a local middle school, learn what our nearby utility companies are doing, organize recycling drives and placing in the NEED Great American Energy Scavenger Hunt.

The high school presentations and scrapbooks at the awards inspired us to incorporate more NEED materials into our presentations for Motlow State College and Sewanee’s Earth Day Fair.

We also mentored a local middle school’s 6 – 8 grade science class. On one trip we made solar ovens and baked cookies. The EPA selected the electronic waste recycling drive we organized as one of the ten best in the country. The Cumberland Center for Justice and Peace presented us their annual Environmental Stewardship Award. We added CNG and biodiesel information into our presentations after visiting two utility companies. Our class and parents took the on-line ENERGY STAR Pledge and made energy use changes. And we took a lot of pictures.

STATE SPOTLIGHT

Tennessee

TEXAS - TXU ENERGY SOLAR ACADEMY White Pine School White Pine, TN Project Title: Conserve Energy: Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle Project Advisor: Audrey Hughes See Junior Level School of the Year

See page 26.

The TXU Energy Solar Academy continues to excite and energize students and teachers across Texas. Now in its 5th year, the program provides a solar installation to school districts as well as teacher training and hands-on curriculum and kits. Reaching over 1,000 teachers, the program has gained national attention as a model for integrating energy education into the classroom and throughout the district. The TXU Energy Solar Academy is designed to work in districts of any size – with representation from the largest school districts in Texas and the smallest.

For more information visit: http://txu-solaracademy.need.org/

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

THAILAND - ENERGY MINISTRY OF THAILAND & CHAING MAI UNIVERSITY In 2009, NEED launched a new project with the Government of Thailand’s Energy Ministry and Chaing Mai University to bring NEED’s curriculum and teacher training model to Thailand’s teachers and students. A three-day teacher workshop was held in 2010 for Thai educators and a delegation of educators attended the NEED Energy Conference for Educators held in July 2010 in Dallas, Texas. In April 2011, another workshop was hosted to provide training to International Schools in Thailand and a delegation of educators representing the Energy Ministry and Education Ministry attended the 2011 NEED Energy Conference for Educators in Denver, Colorado. NEED materials are translated into Thai, and the partnership continues to be rewarding for all parties. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Energy Ant has been touring Thailand as well. In 2012-2013, NEED expects to expand its Thailand partnership model to include other partners in the region.

www.NEED.org

67

Texas

Cockrill Middle School McKinney, TX Project Title: Cockrill Middle School Recycling Club & Energy Awareness Project Advisor: Lisa Wilson

Utah

Morningside Elementary School Salt Lake City, UT Project Title: Team W.I.S.E. (World Initiative – Saving Energy) Project Advisor: Patti White

68

2012 NEED Annual Report

This year at Cockrill Middle School, our recycling club has participated in energy and recycling activities. Our club has over fifteen members. Every Thursday morning and afternoon we come in and collect and take out the recycling. In October of 2011, we participated in the WFAA-TV Project Green Trinity River Contest. We filmed a video educating people about pollution in the Trinity River.

Recently, we started the Cool School Challenge, where students question teachers on how much energy they use. We measure and help classes and teachers save energy. On Mondays and Thursdays we make sure that all classroom lights are turned off, and that the teachers are doing their part in the challenge. During Open House, our recycling club held an Energy Carnival. Teachers, students, and parents could play games and educate themselves on energy. We told people how much energy common electronics use, and then they played Energy Jumble and Energy Knockdown. It was fun yet educational.

A couple of days before Earth Day, we sold Earth Day t-shirts, so people could be aware that we need to recycle and have energy conservation. This year at Cockrill, we met our goal to educate peers about energy conservation and recycling.

What do you get when a community recognizes a team’s energy awareness involvement and invites them to an Alternative Fuel Vehicle Press Conference, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, a “Clear the Air Kick-off”, and an Energy Fair? You get Team W.I.S.E! Team W.I.S.E stands for Team World Initiative-Saving Energy.

Our team held a debate and spoke at Salt Lake City’s Community Counsel about the pros and cons of Mayor Becker’s anti-idling mandate. We partnered with students from Washington State to support their G-Diesel vehicle at the Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway. We designed alternative fuel vehicles and presented with Mayor Winder at the “Alternative Fuel Vehicle Awareness Month Press Conference”. Then our team competed in the “Clear the Air Challenge,” where we saved 3,500 miles, 1,100 trips, and reduced 5,700 emissions.

We’ve sung three team composed songs titled: “We can Carpool, Walk and Ride our Bikes Tonight”, “Clear the Air “and “Back in the Millcreek Center”. Our team made sixteen teaching energy bins with kits from NEED. We taught teachers how to use them for classroom check-out. So, to conclude, we had a busy, fun, energy-filled, educational, and exciting school year.

Virginia

Thaxton Elementary School Thaxton, VA Project Title: Reach for the Stars – Recycle!

Project Advisor: Viola Henry

We had another exciting year at Thaxton. Working together, our school and community increased their awareness of various conservation ideas and increased recycling. Our projects included recycling aluminum cans and recycling ink cartridges or cell phones with Cartridges for Kids. Money collected from these recycled items was used to pay for our school and community projects. We also recycled about one thousand pounds of mixed paper each month!

We gave back to the community in many ways. In the “Ronald McDonald House Can Tab Program”, we collected and donated can tabs. The money we raised helped provide a home-awayfrom-home for families of seriously ill children and adults in the Roanoke area hospitals. We participated in the “Fruit and Vegetables Exchange.” The NEED team planted various fruits and vegetables. Families in our community would donate time to clear the garden of weeds, in exchange for fresh fruits and vegetables for their tables. Everyone was really excited and couldn’t wait for the exchange to start.

This was our twelfth year participating in the Virginia Tech/ AECP Energy Expo. This was two days of demonstrations of energy conservation projects and ideas. All the students and teachers had a lot of fun at our Energy Fair. Dominion Chrysler Dodge Jeep brought two “Gem cars” to our school’s Energy Fair. Some of the students wanted to add the four-wheeler gem cars to their Christmas shopping lists. We also participated in the “fall and spring clean-up campaign” with Keep Bedford Beautiful Commission.

Wisconsin

Park Community Charter School Kaukauna, WI Project Title: We All NEED Community Connections Project Advisor: Kim TeGrootenhuis Primary Level Rookie of the Year

See page 28.

www.NEED.org

69

NEED National Sponsors and Partners

70

American Association of Blacks in Energy

Energy Education for Michigan

American Chemistry Council

Energy Training Solutions

American Electric Power

Energy Solutions Foundation

American Electric Power Foundation

Entergy

American Solar Energy Society

Equitable Resources

American Wind Energy Association

First Roswell Company

Appalachian Regional Commission

Foundation for Environmental Education

Areva

FPL

Arkansas Energy Office

The Franklin Institute

Armstrong Energy Corporation

GenOn Energy–California

Ãà V >Ì Ê vÊ ià ÊEÊ iÀÀ V Ê ÕLÃ

Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority

Robert L. Bayless, Producer, LLC

Government of Thailand–Energy Ministry

BP

Guam Energy Office

BP Alaska

Gulf Power

E Ê"«iÀ>Ì ÀÃ

Halliburton Foundation

Cape and Islands Self Reliance

Hawaii Energy

Cape Cod Cooperative Extension

Gerald Harrington, Geologist

Cape Light Compact–Massachusetts

Houston Museum of Natural Science

L.J. and Wilma Carr

Hydro Research Foundation

Central Virginia Community College

Idaho Department of Education

Chevron

Idaho National Laboratory

Chevron Energy Solutions

Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation

ComEd

Independent Petroleum Association of America

ConEdison Solutions

Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico

ConocoPhillips

Indiana Michigan Power

Council on Foreign Relations

Interstate Renewable Energy Council

CPS Energy

iStem–Idaho STEM Education

Dart Foundation

Kansas City Power and Light

David Petroleum Corporation

KBR

Desk and Derrick of Roswell, NM

Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition

Dominion

Kentucky Department of Education

Dominion Foundation DTE Energy Foundation

Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence

Duke Energy

Kentucky Oil and Gas Association

East Kentucky Power

Kentucky Propane Education and Research Council

El Paso Foundation

Kentucky River Properties LLC

E.M.G. Oil Properties

Kentucky Utilities Company

Encana

Lenfest Foundation

Encana Cares Foundation

Littler Mendelson

2012 NEED Annual Report

Llano Land and Exploration

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Saudi Aramco

Louisville Gas and Electric Company

Schneider Electric

Maine Energy Education Project

Science Museum of Virginia

Maine Public Service Company

C.T. Seaver Trust

Marianas Islands Energy Office

Shell

Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources

Snohomish County Public Utility District–WA

Lee Matherne Family Foundation

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Michigan Oil and Gas Producers Education Foundation

SolarWorld USA

Midwest Energy Cooperative

David Sorenson

Mississippi Development Authority–Energy Division

Southern Company

Montana Energy Education Council

Southern LNG

The Mosaic Company

Southwest Gas

NADA Scientific

Space Sciences Laboratory–University of California Berkeley

NASA National Association of State Energy Officials

Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development–Energy Division

National Fuel

Tennessee Valley Authority

National Grid

Toyota

National Hydropower Association

TXU Energy

National Ocean Industries Association

United States Energy Association

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

University of Nevada–Las Vegas, NV

Nebraska Public Power District

U.S. Department of Energy

New Mexico Oil Corporation

U.S. Department of Energy–Hydrogen Program

New Mexico Landman’s Association

U.S. Department of Energy–Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

New Orleans Solar Schools Initiative New York Power Authority NSTAR OCI Enterprises Offshore Energy Center Offshore Technology Conference Ohio Energy Project Pacific Gas and Electric Company PECO Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association Phillips 66 PNM Puerto Rico Energy Affairs Administration Puget Sound Energy Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources RiverWorks Discovery Roswell Climate Change Committee Roswell Geological Society

U.S. Department of Energy–Office of Fossil Energy U.S. Department of Energy–Wind for Schools U.S. Department of Energy–Wind Powering America U.S. Department of the Interior–Bureau of Land Management U.S. Department of the Interior–Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement U.S. Energy Information Administration U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Van Ness Feldman Virgin Islands Energy Office Virginia Department of Education Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy Walmart Foundation Washington and Lee University Western Kentucky Science Alliance W. Plack Carr Company Yates Petroleum Corporation

www.NEED.org

71

The NEED Project P.O. Box 10101 Manassas, VA 20108 Tel: 1-800-875-5029 Fax: 1-800-847-1820 Email: info@NEED.org www.NEED.org