States F through K
FLORIDA PRIMARY LEVEL
NATIONAL ROOKIE FINALIST
Floresta Elementary School
1505 SE Floresta Drive
Port St. Lucie, FL 34983
(772) 340-4755
www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/flo/index.htm
Project Title: Kids NEED Science
Project Adviser: Mollie Mukhamedov
Student Director: Holly Taylor
The Floresta fifth grade class and kindergarten class started our NEED project on October 11, 2006. The first thing we did was meet our buddies. It was pretty exciting meeting them and doing a lot of things with them and our teachers.
The goal of our NEED project was to increase energy awareness for kindergarteners and fifth graders. The fifth grade class helped their buddies with the pre-energy polls. Then the fifth graders did their own pre-energy polls. We did the Energy from the Sun books. We learned that solar energy is in many things, like wind. First the sun shines on earth like normal. Next, the land heats faster than the water. Then warm air over the land rises and cool air over the water takes its place. This is how wind is made, and it is only one of the things we learned.
We also conducted activities from the NEED Primary Flipbooks. We learned energy chants and played energy games. They were about renewable and nonrenewable energy. We shared games and chants with other classes. Our NEED project was a lot of fun!
FLORIDA ELEMENTARY LEVEL
NATIONAL FINALIST
A.K. Suter Elementary School
501 East Pickens Avenue
Pensacola, FL 32503
(850) 595-6810
www.escambia.k12.fl.us/schscnts/sute/index.htm
Project Title: Saving Energy at Suter
Project Adviser: Deborah Pate
Student Directors: Jamie Butler and Clare Quina
Once again, Suter Elementary joined forces with schools across the nation to conserve energy. Although we are a small school, we feel that we played a big part in energy conservation by educating others about energy. The NEED Project helped us accomplish our goals by providing us with fun, hands-on learning. The Suter Energy Savers’ goals were to increase students’ awareness of solar energy, teach others about energy conservation and to heighten community awareness of energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Our focus this year was on solar energy. We did many hands-on experiments throughout the year, but our favorite was baking cookies in our solar oven. We also wanted to educate others about energy conservation so we initiated a huge, school-wide recycling project. We collected and counted trash for days! We were amazed at how much trash our small school could collect.
Our last goal was to heighten community awareness of energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. We set up an energy booth to provide information and sold these energy-saving light bulbs. We involved our community, and even “lobbied” for energy conservation with our State Representative.
We had a fun-filled year of energy education!
FLORIDA JUNIOR LEVEL
J.H. Workman Middle School
6299 Lanier Drive
Pensacola, FL 32504
(850) 494-5665
Project Title: EnerJags
Project Adviser: Karen Atkinson
Student Director: Bryson Clifton
This year in EnerJags we started a paper recycling program at our school to help save on cutting down trees. In the mornings we created and decorated boxes to put in classrooms and other rooms so teachers and students would put recyclable paper in them instead of throwing it away. After each box was full, we sent a student to collect and empty the boxes in the outdoor recycling bins for the county to pick up.
We also made posters for Earth Day. We put them up around school so that our students would be aware of it and remember to recycle and take care of the planet.
We all took the ENERGY STAR® “Change a Light, Change the World” Pledge to replace one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb. It was cool and informative.
We had a lot of fun and learned a lot this year being in EnerJags. We plan on doing more in the future to help keep our school and planet green!
FLORIDA SENIOR LEVEL
NATIONAL ROOKIE FINALIST
Escambia High School
1310 North 65th Avenue
Pensacola, FL 32506
(850) 453-3221
Project Title: Saver Gators Chase CO2
Project Adviser: Laura Mattair
Student Directors: Ashley Ludwig, Tammy Holley, Marcy Snyder, Cameron Koscinski, Nicole Samuels and Katie Conover
The main goals of the Saver Gators of Escambia High School (EHS) are to further our knowledge of how to conserve energy, increase energy awareness and teach the community about conserving energy.
We investigated how the current use of classroom appliances on the EHS campus impacts our environment. We used the Learning and Conserving Kit from NEED to help with our investigation.
We learned about CO2 and the greenhouse effect. We wrote an announcement to educate students about the three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle), and provided examples of how to conserve for each R. We used a kilowatt meter from the Learning and Conserving Kit to measure the current and voltage of common classroom appliances used at EHS. Using that knowledge, we calculated the approximate total pounds of CO2 emitted for classroom appliances. We walked around our campus to count trees, calculated CO2 absorbed per tree and observed where we could add trees to the campus.
We plan to expand on this knowledge by starting an energy club at the school and putting in place a recycling program. We would also like to plant some trees around campus to further help the environment.
We are Escambia High Saver Gators. We want to keep our campus clean and teach others how to conserve energy.
ILLINOIS PRIMARY LEVEL
NATIONAL SCHOOL OF THE YEAR
Stuart R. Paddock Elementary School
ILLINOIS ELEMENTARY LEVEL
Apple River Middle School
301 West Hickory Street
Apple River, IL 61001
(815) 594-2210
Project Title: Energy Club
Project Adviser: Pam Phelps
Student Director: Austin Toepfer
Energized—that’s us—the Apple River Middle School Energy Club. There were eight excited members this year: Gavin Leverton, Shanaye Howard, Samantha Story, Austin Toepfer, Travis Near, Austin Rendon, Adam Molitor and Keanah Bates. Miss Phelps was head “electrician”.
We began with a spark of energy that grew into a wildfire of activities. We were energizers and kept on going and going. Besides our own learning, we plugged into activities for our school, our district, our community, a neighboring district, three counties, our state, and, through recycling, our world. We charged into batteries of contests—competing in some and sponsoring some. We lit up our community and neighboring counties with the recycling message through our Snowman Contest and Festival of Trees Contest.
It was a sunshiny year as we taught younger students about PV cells and solar energy. We produced kilowatts of excitement when we put on puppet shows and an Energy Carnival with younger classes. Oreos and apple batteries charged us into the Science of Energy activities. The success of our recycling contest was shocking—and we ramped up our revolutions per minute to complete the work this contest required. It was an electrifying year, with no blackouts!
ILLINOIS JUNIOR LEVEL
Kennedy Middle Grade School
1550 West Calista Street
Kankakee, IL 60901
(815) 933-0760
www.k111.k12.il.us/kennedy
Project Title: Energy Fair
Project Adviser: Constance Beatty
Student Directors: Sam Marcotte, Breanne Runner, Grant Penrod, Tyler Erzinger and Asher Trapp
From energy fairs to watching movies on petroleum, our fifth and sixth grade class did many activities on energy and energy conservation.
One of the activities was Petroleum Ponder. First, we watched a movie called Fueless. The movie talked about different things that are made out of petroleum. Then we played a game. We wrote down items in a box that were made from petroleum. We then studied the ten sources of energy.
We hosted an energy fair. During the fair, the kids in our class were divided into groups. Each group learned a Science of Energy station. We also found the most efficient blade design for a wind turbine. We got materials and presented at the fair. Classes from the school were invited.
We have begun a generator unit. We are putting magnets in a bottle and wrapped copper wire around it. We rotate it to generate electricity.
We wanted to go to the national awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. We did fundraising during the year to help us attend. We also wrote to companies asking for money. Most of the school knows about our fundraising.
In conclusion, our class participated in many energy activities.
KENTUCKY ELEMENTARY LEVEL
Glenn O. Swing Elementary School
501 West 19th Street
Covington, KY 41014
(859) 292-5821
www.jgc.covington.k12.ky.us/GOS/
Project Title: A Better Bulb for a Brighter Future
Project Adviser: Tara Bell
Student Directors: Cory Herron and Austin Rosa
Our goal was to teach students, staff, community members and those in surrounding communities about compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). We also wanted to teach about renewable and nonrenewable resources so people would not waste their resources, and would understand why it is important to switch to CFLs.
To reach these goals we created our own Energy Fair. We taught students and community members about our natural resources and their importance. We used chants, games and posters. We taught the students and adults ourselves.
Next, we created our own community night to teach about CFLs. Each family that came signed an ENERGY STAR® “Change a Light, Change the World” Pledge and received four CFLs. Two of our members created a book about the CFL. Each person who came got a book with information about CFLs.
We also gave the book to customers at Zimmer’s Hardware. Four of our team members went there to teach customers about CFLs. We showed them how to compare lumens and watts.
We also created two public service announcements about natural resources and CFLs that are being shown on local channels. It has the potential to reach 45,000 people in Kenton and Boone counties.
KENTUCKY JUNIOR LEVEL
Twenhofel Middle School
11846 Taylor Mill Road
Independence, KY 41051
(859) 356-5559
www.twms.kenton.kyschools.us
Project Title: Shedding Light
Project Advisers: Sharon Cross and Beth Davis
Student Directors: Sierra Waechter and Olivia Wassom
Our goal this year as the Twenhofel Middle School NEED Team was to inform our peers, school and community about energy conservation.
As a constant job, we were to give tours to the people interested in our facility, teaching them about the energy conserving features here. We set a standard for the Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools pilot program. We were student facilitators at a workshop that taught students from other schools about energy conservation.
One of our members had the idea of bringing up the issue of using Styrofoam trays, which do not decompose, in a green school by emailing the head of Kenton County food services. Last, we taught our sixth graders about CFL lighting and its advantages over incandescent light bulbs.
KENTUCKY SENIOR LEVEL
NATIONAL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Russell Area Technology Center
705 Red Devil Lane
Russell, KY 41169
(606) 836-1256
Project Title: Change a Light, Change the World, One Family, One Light at a Time
Project Adviser: Doug Keaton
Student Directors: Krista Miller and Shaun Stephens
Our goal was to study alternative and renewable energy options using the Science of Energy Kits from NEED, as well as other materials from various energy resources.
This year’s focus was wind. We also wanted to raise awareness of energy conservation and resources. We began with fossil fuels and a study of current energy resources. We made posters of these resources.
To raise public awareness, we built two live action displays. These displays show two residential electric meters side by side with a load attached to each. The load on one is three 100-watt incandescent lamps. The load on the other is three 100-watt equivalent compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs.
We took this display to Wal-Mart during the October Energy Awareness Campaign. Then we demonstrated to over 600 students in two days at the middle school. In all, we gave out over 1,000 ENERGY STAR® Pledges and 2,000 brochures on environmental awareness and CFL calculations.
We demonstrated wind turbine models and how wind generates electricity. We participated in a blade design challenge. We are building a one-kilowatt wind turbine outside our school.
We presented to local middle school, high school, and community college students, business, industry, and political leaders, and representatives in our community. We hope to reach more during our Earth Day Celebration.
