States S through W

 

Tennessee

Primary Level School of the Year
Huntingdon Primary School

Bailey Station Elementary School
3435 Bailey Station
Collierville, TN 38017
(901) 853-6380
www.baileystation.scs.site.eboard.com
Project Title: Energizing Bailey Station Bears
Project Advisers: Carmen Hall, Melinda Ferrante, and Heather Kubitz
Student Directors: Rachel Hall and Collin McLeod

The primary goal of our 2007-2008 NEED project was to encourage awareness of forms of energy and energy conservation in our community and school.

Developing and implementing a before and after school science enrichment class allowed students the opportunity to design and explore electrical circuits.  This hands-on learning experience received an overwhelming response from parents wanting their children to participate.  Parent and student evaluations confirmed that the activity was a success.

Working with local community groups brought awareness to students, parents and the community of the need for recycling in today’s ever changing world.  Students enjoyed collecting, identifying and organizing materials for recycling.

Hands-on classroom lessons were designed to encourage students to explore forms of energy and how energy influences their daily lives.  Student assessments showed these activities were successful in aiding retention of information.  Grants were written to solicit funds to purchase energy activities for our school Science Lab for future hands-on experiences.

The 2007-2008 NEED Project was a success.

Finalist Junior Level School of the Year
Mountain View Elementary School
145 County Road 627
Etowah, TN 37331
(423) 263-2498
Project Title: CSI: Conservation Student Investigators
Project Adviser: Becky Riley
Student Directors: Benjamin Riley, Macy Trotter, Chelcee Peel, Dominique Mayfield, and Moriah Giles

The MVS CSI (Conservation Student Investigators) are spying on energy hogs and converting them into ‘green machines’ by recycling all paper products, ink cartridges, and aluminum cans within our school.  Our club traveled to the American Museum of Science and Energy to study nuclear energy, local utility sites to learn about water and waste water treatment, Watts Bar Nuclear and Hydroelectric Plant, and to view Habitat for Humanity solar panels at a job fair. 

Our club holds many competitions focusing on energy and conservation including the bookmark and placemat contests, in which we had two state winners.  McDonald’s distributed over 1,000 winning placemats.  Our 5th annual Energy War was a huge success, with three schools competing in an energy quiz bowl for ‘the crown’.  Our first annual photo contest was a hit as students and their families created original photos of either energy hogs or conservers. An afterschool program was designed to spread energy awareness and NEED’s Kids Teaching Kids approach was both fun and rewarding. 

By partnering with other energy experts, we earned grant money to promote conservation.  Our grants include a $1,500 3-Star Community grant for ENERGY STAR products, a $12,000 Biodiesel grant, and a $500 Outdoor Classroom grant.  We also educated our community by hosting a booth at Fall Fest. Our efforts paid off by receiving the ‘Friend of Conservation’ award by Soil Conservation officials.  Our four energy goals were met by educating club members, school students, community members, and families concerning current energy issues and taking appropriate actions.  MVS Science Club conserves. Do you?

Senior Level School of the Year
Fayette Academy

 

Finalist Senior Level School of the Year
Scott High School
400 Scott High Drive
Huntsville, TN 37756
(423) 663-2801
http://shs.scottcounty.net/
Project Title: Scott High School Goes Green
Project Adviser: John Cannon
Student Director: Cassandra D. Byrge

At the start of the 2007-2008 school year, Scott High School obtained Tennessee ‘Green School’ status and our program took on several new projects that we felt were necessary to move to the next level.  Students in the Technology Engineering Program began setting up a comprehensive school-recycling program.  This collection program began in October of 2007 and is now in full swing. 

Simultaneously, we assessed our solar energy program and began steps to increase battery storage and monitoring capabilities.  It was also decided that making biodiesel in the laboratories was not enough and, with a new Agricultural Education teacher on the staff, it was decided that we needed to make much larger quantities of the fuel.  With the help of a Perkins Reserve Grant, we purchased the equipment to enable us to produce enough fuel to use in the school tractors and possibly some buses for energy centered field trips. 

Early in 2008, the school obtained a wind turbine from the Tennessee Valley Authority and now is working on testing the turbine and erecting a 105-foot tower. In the two years we have been involved with the NEED program, we have seen energy awareness increase in our school and community.  This summer we are planning on conducting a teacher in-service workshop, which will focus on teaching about alternative energy in the elementary schools within our school system, the availability of NEED materials to supplement this instruction, and the ability to bring young students to Scott High to see the solar panels and wind turbine.


Virginia

Greenbrier Intermediate School
1701 River Birch Run North
Chesapeake, VA 23320
(757) 578-7080
www.cpschools.com/Schools/GRI/
Project Title: Saving Energy Is What We NEED to Do!
Project Advisers: Karen Arnett and John Sammons
Student Directors: Aliyah Chandler, Kirsten Crichton, Anthony D’Angelo, Austin Davis, Irum Khan, Becca Maigs, Angelica Orlanda, Rayjon Ratliff, Logan Voorhees, and Clayton Ward

The people of Greenbrier Intermediate School had a major problem. They were consuming too much energy and paying money that they didn’t have for it.  But their problem soon disappeared with the help of a disguised, secret alliance for saving energy. Each week, when all of the teachers were gone from their domains, the LEGO team would audit their classrooms to see if they were wasting or consuming too much energy.  The LEGO team looked to see if computers, lights, heaters, printers, and lamps were turned off when not in use. They checked to see if thermostats and air vents were unblocked, too.

Depending on the number of problems cited in the room, they would secretly hang a red card (for three or more problems), a yellow card (for one to two problems), or a green card (for no problems). When the teachers saw bad results, they tried to improve. Over a period of six weeks, the inhabitants of the school realized their mistakes and fixed them before any more energy was wasted. No one knows exactly where the LEGO team is today, but they’re still out there...disguised and saving energy.

Thaxton Elementary School
1081 Monorail Circle
Thaxton, VA 24174
(540) 586-3821
www.bedford.k12.va.us/tes
Project Title: The Sky is the Limit, Recycle!
Project Adviser: Viola Henry
Student Director: McKenzie Tibbs

Thaxton N.E.E.D. Team goals were to teach our students about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and to increase energy awareness in our community.  Many of our projects provided a service, as well as provided conservation ideas that the public could use. 

Our projects included saving 1500 acres of rainforest in South America, mixed paper recycling with the City of Bedford Solid Waste Department, recycling ink cartridges and cell phones with Cartridges for Kids, and recycling aluminum cans.  Also, we collected and cleaned slightly used coats, then donated them to needy families.  Students participated in the Ronald McDonald House pop tab program, where all the money raised provides a home away from home for families of seriously ill people in hospitals in the Roanoke area. 

We received a $4,500 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund Advisory Committee, which included a proposal to establish an arboretum focusing on correct methods of planting and caring for plants in the James River watershed.  We also participated in the Virginia Tech/ AECP Energy Fair, the Bedford Christmas Parade, designed grocery bags with conservation tips, and participated in fall and spring clean-up campaigns with the Keep Bedford Beautiful Commission and the ‘Earth Day Project’ at the Virginia Tech Earth Day Fair. 

Northside High School
6758 Northside High School Road
Roanoke, VA 24019
(540) 561-8155
Project Title: Earth 911: We Need Your Help
Project Adviser: Marsha Layman
Student Director: Katrlyn Elliott

Our goal was to educate ourselves, our peers, and our community to become aware of our environment and the health of our earth. We titled our project ‘Earth 911: We Need Your Help’ because we believe it is very important to keep the air clean, the water sanitized, and the overall nature of our surroundings healthy.

We were able to come up with some creative ways to advertise gas efficiency, plastic and paper recycling, energy conservation, and child friendly teaching activities. We first created posters advertising all these things and posted them around Northside Middle and High Schools in areas where traffic was the highest. Then we started off our campaign for recycling by asking families and friends to hold on to their plastics and papers to be collected by our team and recycled at the Roanoke Recycling Center.

For our third project, we taught a class of third grade students at Burlington Elementary in our community. We played games like Match the Resource and Energy Jeopardy. The kids drew pictures of their homes and added details depicting ways they could save energy in their homes. For our fourth and final project, we teamed up with our local Member One Federal Credit Union branch and designed a flyer to be handed out in collaboration with their Click to Conserve campaign, encouraging members to pay bills online to conserve resources. In all, this project was very successful; we had positive feedback from everyone we worked with and were able to reach a large number of people!