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.

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 2011-2012 school year.

A.K. Suter Elementary School

Pensacola, FL

Project Title: Florida’s Future is Green

Project Adviser: Deborah Pate

We began this year with concerns about our beautiful Florida beaches and the environmental effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We focused our year on alternative energy sources and shared that knowledge with others. The NEED Project helped us accomplish our goals by providing us with fun, hands-on learning.

We wrote letters to President Obama to express our concerns about the oil spill. We studied solar and wind energy and then we made solar houses, solar thermometers, and wind turbines. We invited guests into our classroom to help us understand energy conservation and we took a field trip to the landfill to learn about recycling. We also visited a new gas to energy facility.

To increase community awareness, we continued our recycling program. We had an energy booth at our school carnival and we put energy messages on grocery bags at Publix Supermarket. We collected “energy pledges” for America Recycles Day, and made conservation placemats for a local restaurant. Wow! What a fun year we have had! Because of our hard work…”Florida’s Future is Green.”

Floresta Elementary School

Port St. Lucie, FL

Project Title: Energy Matters

Project Adviser: Mollie Mukhamedov

Our goal is to learn and teach about forms and sources of energy and energy transformations with an emphasis on renewable energy. Two musicals empowered us to teach over 1,000 people about recycling, saving energy and using renewable sources of energy for electricity. Participating in the Energy Pledge and inviting the local pre-school class to our “Santa Goes Green” performance were great ways to make a positive impact in our community. We continued the recycling program so every class had the opportunity to recycle. We love Florida Power and Light because not only do they come to our school and teach us about energy, they awarded us grant money to learn about renewable energy. It was so fun to design our own wind turbine blades and to make our own anemometers. Many of us had no idea what a penstock was or how hydroelectric power plants worked before this project. Maintaining our garden was a great way for us to make a positive difference in our school. People enjoy our garden, and it was our pleasure to make it a beautiful place where we all learn about solar energy, photosynthesis, and energy transformations.

NATIONAL ELEMENTARY LEVEL ROOKIE SCHOOL OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Mariposa Elementary School

Port St. Lucie, FL

Project Title: Mariposa NEEDs to Save Our Natural Resources

Project Advisers: Tari Sexton and Adam Archer

Our 5th grade classes started the NEED Project in October 2010. 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. We also completed an awesome activity called Pretzel Power. We figured out if we were to put our pretzels together, just like carpooling, we could get to Far Town and back home with pretzels (fuel) left over.

Our classmates decided that we could work with our media specialist and use our awesome production setup at our school to do Energy on Stage. Each class did one play by turning it into a puppet show. The whole school participated in the Energy Wanted Poster Contest. In April, we held our school Energy Night. We played Energy Bingo, Energy Knockdown, Energy Memory, and Energy Jumble.  

We picked solar and wind energy because we live close to the beach in Florida and it is always windy here. Our school project is to share with our community and students that solar and wind are renewable and accessible.

Ferry Pass Middle School

Pensacola, FL

Project Title: Ferry Pass Middle School Recycles Again!

Project Adviser: Carolyn Wuest  

This school year, Ferry Pass Middle School was able to have a school-wide recycling program! We recycled everything from paper to shoes and even had a recycling company come empty our recycling dumpsters twice a week.

We started the year recycling phone books. Next, was a big delivery of recycling boxes to be put together! One went in each classroom and copy room. We collected so much recyclable material we had to order another dumpster and extra pick-up each week. We collected new and slightly used shoes for the Soles4Souls program. Some of our shoes may now be in Japan!

We had special guests come in and talk with our class - Ms. Green from the Perdido Landfill and Mrs. Reynolds from Energy Services of Pensacola.

We held an energy expo so that our energy group could share the experiments from the Science of Energy with the community. Gulf Power, Energy Services of Pensacola, and the recycling program at the Perdido Landfill set up booths to demonstrate items and answer questions.

We also figured the Plug Load for one of our buildings using the spreadsheet provided by NEED. We shared these results with the teachers and staff.