Ohio
Finalist Primary Level School of the Year
Central College Magnet School
825 South Sunbury Road
Westerville, OH 43081
(614) 797-7030
www.westerville.k12.oh.us
Project Title: Our Energy Scrapbook
Project Adviser: Mrs. Koleen Foley
Learning about our earth has been fun. We built clay models of the earth. We learned about the layers of the earth and the resources we get from the earth. We learned that some of these resources are renewable and some are nonrenewable. These resources give us energy.
We pretended to drill for oil. It was not easy to find oil in our earth. We studied oil spills and how they hurt nature. We tried to find ways to clean up oil spills.
Our Battelle Scientist, Mr. Held, built an electrical circuit with us. We learned how electrical energy lights up a bulb. We made wind turbines and studied how wind can be used to give things power to move. We watched the sun change our energy beads different colors.
We know it is important to recycle. We take part in our school’s recycling program. We decorated bags for Kroger to teach others about the need to take care of the earth.
Our fifth grade energy buddies invited us to an Energy Carnival. We were excited about that. Learning about energy and our earth is fun. Now we are trying to teach others about saving energy and helping our environment.
Three Rivers Middle School
8575 Bridgetown Road
Cleves, OH 45002
(513) 467-3500
www.threeriversschools.org
Project Title: TRMS Energy Club
Project Advisers: Patti Detmer and Tina Cole
Student Directors: Sarah Fellinger, Andrew Branch, Elizabeth Lakamp, Josie Janszen, and Ryan Sandling
This year we did many energy projects, including the Energy Carnival, a bookmark contest, and weekly announcements on our video clipboard. We started a recycling program for plastic bottles, paper, aluminum cans, Meijer and Kroger bags, and made posters for two schools within our district giving energy information. We took a field trip to Miami Fort Power Plant, made placemats for an evening at Skyline Chili, washed cups for our classroom and used them the whole year, hosted a program about recycling called Crystal Clear, and every member of our class presented an energy project to the entire class. We also recycled tabs at our school for the Ronald McDonald House.
On this year’s annual field trip, we went to Miami Fort Power Plant. At the Three Rivers District Showcase, we showed some energy experiments and did some demonstrations on sound energy. We showed an energy club video from one of the past years that made everyone laugh. We made energy placemats for Skyline. At the beginning of the year, we gave out a pre-test about energy. Later in the year, we gave the same test and most of the results skyrocketed.
Sue Magness from Hamilton County Waste Management met with the TRMS Energy Club to get us started with energy tips and advice. She gave use recycled pencils, color change pencils, solar powered calculators, energy notebooks, and energy wristbands.
In conclusion, we had to work very hard, but we still had fun. This has been a long journey and we know it is worth it.
Finalist Junior Level School of the Year
Heritage Middle School
390 North Spring Road
Westerville, OH 43082
(614) 797-6600
www.westerville.k12.oh.us/heritage
Project Title: The Generators’ Bright Ideas
Project Advisors: Nyescha Clayton, Lauanya Watkins, Jason Tucker, and Debbie Pellington
Student Directors: Chris Morelli and Allie Mellinger
The Heritage Energy Team, The Generators, focused on three main energy goals. Each activity was designed around a ‘bright idea’. The bright ideas, highlighted by CFLs in our scrapbook, emphasize the main energy knowledge or theme accomplished for completed activities.
Our first goal was increasing our own energy education so we could then educate our school, homes, and the Westerville community on energy issues. Activities we completed included field trips to a nuclear reactor laboratory, a landfill, and a water treatment facility.
Our second goal was energy leadership and outreach. Activities included two energy fairs, developing a Change a Light, Change the World display, and having community members sign a pledge to try a CFL in their homes. Other activities included student designed energy placemats used at a restaurant for an energy day, school-wide energy announcements, and energy speech writing and presenting.
Our third goal was energy efficiency. Activities completed had positive impacts on energy efficient attitudes, behaviors and knowledge. We completed school and home energy lighting audits, a school-wide ‘Go Green’ contest, and distributed hundreds of compact florescent light bulbs throughout the year.
The Generators had many ‘bright ideas’ that resulted in a very successful and educational energy year!
Anderson High School
7560 Forest Road
Cincinnati, OH 45255
(513) 232-2772
www.learnaboutenergy.org
Project Title: Hey World, Don’t Make it Bad. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. And Make it Better.
Project Adviser: Jeff Rodriguez
Student Directors: Courtney Summer, Isabella Rose, and Karie Chamberlaw
The AHS NEED Club organized and directed many fun activities to make the entire community aware of the ways they can reduce, reuse, and recycle. As part of our ‘Kids Teaching Kids’ theme, we taught younger students at the OEP Energy Fair and conducted eight workshops in our district.
We entered ENERGY STAR’s Change a Light, Change the World campaign. We energized teachers to ride the energy bike and reduce energy use by switching over to CFLs. Between the workshops and this project, we handed out over 300 CFLs! We also promoted reducing gas usage by encouraging student carpooling to school in our ‘Make a Difference Day’ activity. We encouraged recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans at our school with our ‘Battle of the Bottles’ project.
We worked hard to communicate our goals to the students, the community, and the world. We made posters with facts about energy to hang around the school, and articles were published in the school newspaper and the community newspaper. The club’s website, LearnAboutEnergy.org, continues to get over 200 unique visitors per day from around the world.
We continued our research with energy experiments, advertising, and marketing techniques. Examples include a Club promotional CD, solar and wind energy at AHS, hybrid car advertising and marketing, a geothermal home energy system brochure, and creation of an energy CD for preschool students. We investigated energy saving techniques with a home energy kit from Duke Energy.
Our club was extremely productive in getting our community involved in reducing, reusing and recycling. Make it better!
Finalist Senior Level School of the Year
Little Miami High School
3001 US 2213
Morrow, OH 45012
(573) 899-3781
Project Title: Conserving with the Energy Stars
Project Adviser: Amy Aspenwall
Student Director: Lainey Mullin
With everyone focused on going green, students at Little Miami High School wanted to make a real difference in the carbon imprint of the students, parents and families in our district. We started by taking advantage of Duke Energy’s complimentary compact fluorescent light bulbs. We attempted to distribute and track as many bulbs as possible. About 350 were given away to students and families in our area. Team members worked to help members of the community use home energy efficiency kits that included hot water temperature gauges, LED night lights, low flow faucet heads, CFL light bulbs, and water flow meters. Teachers were included by team members preparing an Earth Day teacher appreciation event. One team member and her family replaced their oil burning heating system with a corn pellet system that saved them over $675 this winter alone.
Finally, in an effort to educate the kindergarten to third grade students, team members wrote and illustrated the children’s book Watts up with Watson. Much like Flat Stanley, Watson is a CFL bulb character that discusses the importance of choosing our energy sources wisely. Students can copy Watson and take pictures of him at home with their families as they are working to make good energy choices.
Finalist District of the Year
Westerville Energy Education Partnership
3030 South Otterbein Avenue
Westerville, OH 43081
(614) 797-6029
www.westerville.k12.oh.us
Project Title: Westerville’s Top 10
Project Adviser: Chris Doolittle
Westerville City Schools is fortunate to have a partnership with the Westerville Electric Division, the City of Westerville, and the Ohio Energy Project. This multifaceted approach has created a comprehensive program that provides energy education to our elementary, middle, and high school children, in addition to our community.
It begins with the City of Westerville and the Westerville Electric Division. These organizations have provided funding to help support energy education at all levels of our schools. The Ohio Energy Project then provides ongoing training and support to teachers and students. Materials from the NEED Project assist us in the instruction. They know energy education is a key to the future. Educating our youth in all energy aspects--sources, conservation and awareness-- helps create energy conscious adults. This partnership is an added benefit for our schools and community, because the Ohio Academic Content Standards in Science specifically identify energy education components we are required to teach.
The focus of the Westerville Energy Education Partnership for the 2007-08 school year was to promote energy efficiency in the City of Westerville energy education and student leadership programs. A new partnership this year was expanding the middle school program. The school district shifted their curriculum, moving all physical science content (including energy) into the sixth grade. Professional development to equip teachers and middle school energy programs was conducted.
Another integral part of the Westerville Energy Education Partnership was energy efficiency. Through the support of the Westerville Electric Division, the partnership distributed 2,376 compact florescent light bulbs to students, teachers, and community members.
Rookie District of the Year
Worthington Energy Education Program
200 East Wilson Bridge Road
Worthington, OH 43085
Project Title: Worthington Energy Education Program
Project Adviser: Carol Damian
In the summer of 2006, Worthington City Schools was approved for a House Bill 264 school energy retrofit project. Tim Gerhing, Worthington facilities manager, included an energy education component to the project. This began a partnership with the Ohio Energy Project (OEP).
The theme of the program is ‘Be Energy Smart at School’. The overriding goal is for students and teachers to become more deliberate about saving energy at school. The Worthington Energy Education Program works to accomplish that goal through the Ohio Academic Content Standards for physical science and technology.
Professional development kicked off the school year in August 2007 with workshops for 1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade teachers. All teachers received NEED curriculum and a bin of materials. Worthington Kilbourne Middle School technology teacher, Mike Miller, developed a mass production process to build Energy Transformation Boards. Two ‘make and take’ workshops were held in Worthington for 120 teachers from across the state.
OEP sponsored a ‘Be Energy Smart at School’ poster contest in October. District personnel judged over 500 student posters and selected grade level winners in 5th-7th grades. These winning posters were reproduced and distributed to all elementary and middle schools.
Several schools conducted school energy audits to determine the efficiency of their buildings. Students then made recommendations to the facilities department to make their schools more efficient.
Rhode Island
Park View Middle School
25 Park View Boulevard
Cranston, RI 02910
(401) 270-8090
http://cpsed.net/pview/
Project Title: PV Cougars
Project Advisers: Sheila Hopkins, Joanne Spaziano, and Nancy DeCosta
The PV NEED Cougars have had a busy year. We trained a new group of students and began to teach the new kids about energy sources, games, activities, and conservation. We trained for our conferences and gathered all the materials we would need. Our 8th graders directed the conferences from the beginning to the end.
We decided to donate money to our school for the Thanksgiving baskets. We held four conferences, had a NEED activities night, and presented at our Open House. We worked with our school to turn off lights and machines to save energy and money. We had a NEED presentation at the ESL night. We presented the Museum of Solid Waste and Energy and worked at the Earth Day event at the Roger Williams Park Zoo.
Our advisers went to a conference to help us learn more about nuclear power. Our group consists mostly of students who are on the English as a Second Language team. We used the NEED activities to strengthen our oral and written skills. We estimate that we reached over 1,500 people directly through community involvement, school activities, and over 3,000 people throughout Cranston.
Scituate Middle School
94 Trimtown Road
North Scituate, RI 02857
(401) 647-4123
www.scituateri3.net/sms
Project Title: NEED Project
Project Adviser: Shannon Donovan
Student Director: Casey O’Conner
The Scituate Middle School NEED Project is a small, but growing group of young students interested in making their planet healthier for everyone. To do this, they spent time this year learning more about different types of renewable energy technology. Club members built wind and hydro turbines. They attended a training workshop held at Parkview Middle School. They participated in energy activities conducted by the high school NEED Project club. They are gearing up for their second year of competition in the Rhode Island Junior Solar Sprint.
Scituate High School
94 Trimtown Road
Scituate, RI 02857
(410) 647-4120
www.scituatehighschool.com
Project Title: Scituate High School NEED Project: Saving Energy, Improving our Future
Project Adviser: Shannon Donovan
Student Directors: Melysa Faria and Julie Killian
Students at Scituate High School organized and participated in many events this year to spread awareness about energy conservation. We attended a farmers market where we displayed information about energy conservation and student leadership opportunities through NEED. Some new club members attended a workshop at Park View Middle School.
This year, we hosted our first workshop for kids and teachers from any high school to come and learn more about the science of energy and NEED. We held the second annual Energy Night, where students displayed their energy conservation ideas to the community. Student leaders mentored middle school kids for the Junior Solar Sprint. We held two community contra dances, where we modeled how to have a green event.
Our sales of rain barrels and environmentally friendly cleaning products help us raise money and meet our energy conservation goals. The efforts of our student leaders are appreciated by members of the community as we were awarded a prestigious Senator John H. Chaffee Conservation Leadership Award from the Environmental Council of Rhode Island. With the help of our community partners, student leaders from Scituate High School have done their part to spread the word about energy conservation.
