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. In 2011, NEED workshops will be offered in some new regions of Michigan thanks to support from Encana.

Teachers can access NEED curriculum online. As resources are available, teacher workshops and hands-on kits are available. Individual state curriculum correlations are available here.

NATIONAL PRIMARY LEVEL SCHOOL OF THE YEAR FINALIST

James Madison Elementary School

Manistee, MI

Project Title: The Three Little Rs “Making a Difference”

Project Adviser: Dana Dobis

Recycling has been a big part of our learning at the kindergarten level. My kindergarteners weigh, graph, and box up paper collected from the whole school. Not only do we learn about recycling products, but we learn about energy conservation. We learn to turn off our lights when we are not in our room, take a shower instead of a bath, and turn off the water faucet so it does not drip.

We kicked off Earth Day 2010 with a school assembly. My kindergarteners and I thought we would like to have our very own “Recycling Center”. We came up with some things that would be feasible to collect at our school. At the assembly we explained why recycling is so important, items we would collect, and how we all could help save the Earth.

Our Recycling Center has grown from just paper recycling to collecting chip bags, juice pouches, ink cartridges, glue sticks, and household batteries. With these added items we recycle, our school has been awarded the “Michigan Green School”award.

John F. Kennedy Elementary School

Manistee, MI

Project Title: “Live from Manistee, Michigan, It’s the Next Generation of Energy Achievers!”

Project Adviser: Constance Josvai

Our classes of 54 energetic fifth grade students of energy achievers started our school year early by teaching other kids about energy at the College for Kids Program at West Shore Community College in late July. At our school’s Open House, we presented our Recycling Programs and handed out fliers to parents and businesses. We continued our achievement goals by learning about the different types of energy sources and completing research projects to display at our Energy Carnival. We also taught other students about energy through the Science of Energy Kits. Our Energy Achievers created Acrostic Energy Poems and made Energy Poem Books to share with a fourth grade class and a kindergarten class during March Reading Month. As Energy Achievers, we hosted an Energy Carnival at our school as a Service Learning Project to teach other students about energy and energy conservation. We hope to continue to be the next generation of Energy Achievers.