Kentucky

Karen Reagor

State Coordinator
The NEED Project
P.O. Box 176055
Covington, KY 41017
Tel: 859-578-0312
Email: kreagor@need.org

Kentucky NEED is the state affiliate of the National Energy Education Development Project serving K-12 students and educators across the Commonwealth. It offers a suite of programs that delivers support to teachers and school administrators in the area of instructional methods, curriculum, professional development and energy management—all with an emphasis on integrating energy into student learning.
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.

Special Notice: On April 30, 2012, all programs funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will end. The statewide programs of Kentucky NEED were funded by the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence (DEDI) with ARRA funds for the last few years. We are hopeful that DEDI will have more resources available for us to continue offering resources statewide. Until that time, training and curriculum materials are available in areas with sponsor support and Kentucky teachers may always access curriculum and resources at www.need.org. We are working hard to make certain the schools who have received support thanks to ARRA funds have the resources needed to continue with their energy education program. Please contact us by March 15, 2012 to make your requests for training, kits and materials. If you know of companies, agencies or groups interested in partnering with Kentucky NEED, please let us know.

We want to thank all of you who have support and participated in our program over the years. We’ve enjoyed working with you and your students and wish you continued success.

Kentucky NEED quick links

VendingMiser Project

Kentucky NEED Calendar
Check the links below for upcoming events and opportunities

March 2012
7 Kentucky NEED Energy Workshop Sponsored by Duke Energy – Erlanger, Kentucky
14-15 High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop – Louisville, Kentucky

April 2012
15 Deadline for NEED Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement Entries

May 2012
2 Kentucky NEED Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement Awards Luncheon – Frankfort, Kentucky

June 2012
22 – 25 National Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement – Washington, D.C.

July 2012
15-19 Energy Conference for Educators – Arlington, Virginia

Student Opportunities for 2011-2012

High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop
The ninth-annual High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop will be held March 14-15 at the Galt House in Louisville. The event is for school administrators, architects and engineers planning to build a new school or renovate an existing facility. The workshop will identify high performance/sustainability concepts and how these building designs can enhance the teaching and learning environment, and support energy efficient building operations.

NEED Students Save Schools Energy in VendingMiser® Study VendingMiser® Project – Continues in 2011-12 - Helping Students Track School Energy Savings
In 2010-11, Kentucky NEED facilitated a study conducted by students that led to the reduction of energy consumption of vending machines in 20 participating schools by an average of 52%.

On September 1, 2011 Kentucky NEED will begin accepting applications for the 2011-2012 VendingMiser Project. As part of the project Sanders & Associates will offer one (1) FREE VendingMiser® (VM) for each school district in Kentucky. To qualify, a team of students must complete a two (2) week plug load study of a cold drink machine in their school and submit their data on the official project application form. Click here to apply.

Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement Submissions
Each year there are NEED students who take what they learn in the classroom about energy and extend it into their schools and communities. From teaching their peers about energy to holding Energy Fairs to designing energy efficiency fliers or forming teams to lower school energy consumption. NEED wants to recognize these student leaders and therefore, encourages then to document their energy education activities in a portfolio and submit it to NEED’s annual Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement. Submissions must be received by the Kentucky NEED state office by April 15, 2012. Summaries of last year’s winning Kentucky projects are listed further below on this web page. For more information and an application form, go to page 41 of NEED’s Blueprint for Success.

Kentucky NEED Youth Awards Luncheon
Wednesday, May 2, NEED student energy teams from across the Commonwealth will be recognized for their Youth Awards Projects in a joint awards ceremony with Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools. The event will be held at the Frankfort Convention Center.

Kentucky Students invited to National Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement
All Kentucky NEED schools that submit a project to the 2012 Youth Awards Program (YAP) for Energy Achievement are eligible to attend the National YAP in Washington, D.C.To read more about this four-day event, click here.

Students Making a Difference . . .

Kentucky NEED National Leader in ENERGY STAR® Pledge Drive
For the third year in a row, Kentucky students have collected more ENERGY STAR pledges in the national Change The World campaign than any other educational group. Together Kentucky students have reduced 38,663,398 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and 23,240,625 kilowatt hours of electricity consumption.

Kentucky Schools Received National Honors
Two Kentucky schools received national honors at the NEED Youth Award Program for Energy Achievement held in Washington, D.C. on July 24, 2011. Randall Cooper High School and James Caywood Elementary were both recognized for their energy education projects conducted during the previous school year. A summary of their projects may be viewed by clicking here and here.

Recognized at National Ceremony in Washington, DC: Kentucky Students Attend National Energy Conference
Sixty-one students from ten Kentucky student energy teams and two district-level teams received national recognition at the National Energy Education Development Project’s Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement held June 20-24, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Centerfield Elementary School
Dixie Elementary Magnet School
Dixie High School (Kenton County)
Fayette County Schools
Henry Clay High School (Fayette County)
James A. Caywood Elementary
Kenton County School District
Lyon Count Elementary School
Phillip A. Sharp Middle School
Piner Elementary (Kenton County)
Randall Cooper High School
Richardsville Elementary School

This prestigious event is held annually to recognize students from across the nation with outstanding programs in energy education. Travel funds for the groups were made possible, in part, from sponsors including the Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) and the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence.

These student teams participated in energy education along with 43 other student teams at the state level.

Fifty-one Schools & Two Districts Receive Kentucky NEED 2011 Youth Awards for Energy Achievement
The Kentucky NEED Project is pleased to announce the 2011 outstanding projects submitted to the Kentucky NEED Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement. The students from each of these honored Kentucky schools dedicated this past school year to learning about the science of energy and its practical applications locally and nationally. Based on this foundation, they planned and implemented a project to educate their peers and communities about energy.

Elementary Level (School and County)

Ashland ES, Fayette	Athens-Chilesburg ES, Fayette	Booker T. Washington Academy, Fayette
Briarwood ES, Warren	Bristow ES, Warren	Centerfield ES, Oldham
Cumberland Trace ES, Warren	James A. Caywood ES, Kenton	Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Fayette
Julius Marks ES, Fayette	Liberty ES, Fayette	Lost River ES, Warren
Lyon County ES, Lyon	Mary Todd ES, Fayette	Meadowthorpe ES, Fayette
Natcher ES, Warren	Oakland ES, Warren	Old Mill ES, Bullitt
Picadome ES, Fayette	Piner ES, Kenton	Rich Pond ES, Warren
Richardsville ES, Warren	Rockfield ES, Warren	Rosa Parks ES, Fayette
Summit View ES, Kenton	Tates Creek ES, Fayette	Warren ES, Warren

Junior Level (School and County)

Drakes Creek MS, Warren	Henry F. Moss MS, Warren	Jessie Clark MS, Fayette
Morton MS, Fayette	Muhlenberg North MS, Muhlenberg	Phillip Sharp MS, Pendleton
South Warren MS, Warren	Southern MS, Fayette	Tates Creek MS, Fayette
Tichenor MS, Erlanger-Elsmere	Turkey Foot MS, Kenton	Twenhofel MS, Kenton
Warren East MS, Warren

Senior Level (School and County)

Bryan Station HS, Fayette	Cooper HS, Boone	Dixie Heights HS, Kenton
Energy Technology Career Academy, Adair & Russell	Greenwood HS, Warren	Henry Clay HS, Fayette
Lafayette HS, Fayette	Simon Kenton HS, Kenton	Tates Creek HS, Fayette
The Learning Center, Fayette	Warren East HS, Warren

District Level

Fayette County Schools

Kenton County Schools

Project Descriptions of Outstanding 2011 Kentucky NEED Student Teams
At the May 18, 2011 Youth Summit and Awards Luncheon, six schools and two districts were recognized for their outstanding energy education projects. Here is a description of their energy education project, in their own words.

Dixie Elementary Magnet School
Lexington, KY
Project Title: Energy Conservation
Project Adviser: Amy Crowe
Dixie Elementary Magnet School can be found in the Heart of the Bluegrass. We have the overwhelming task of growing towards being a Green and Healthy School, but we are ready for the challenge. As we continue towards making our students more environmentally conscious and valuable United States citizens, we discovered that these Energy Projects would help us reach this goal. As an energy saving school, the third grade energy team worked towards meeting several Energy Goals. We conducted energy audits throughout the school. We also determined light levels throughout the building. We joined the 10-10-10 Challenge, as well as the ENERGY STAR Challenge. As a third grade, we determined that our energy project would be to install LED exit signs throughout our building, to save on our energy consumption. The bulbs in our current exit signs can be 25-50 watts, and are left on 24 hours a day. The LED exit signs would only have bulbs that are 10 watts. By using LED exit signs, our energy usage will decrease about 9.9% as these signs will be more efficient.
We are excited for the changes in our school home, and the impact it will make on the world around us.

Ashland Elementary School
Lexington, KY
Project Title: Energy Efficiency and Sustainability at Ashland Elementary
Project Adviser: Patrice Burlew
The first of our goals was to figure out how much energy we use at Ashland Elementary School. Students did a secret audit of some of the classes to see how we use energy at our school, and did a Plug Load and light level survey. Secondly, to raise awareness about energy use, we put light switch stickers in the school, and put notes in classrooms to tell students if they were saving energy. Our third goal was to use power strips in the school to conserve energy. Students wrote the grant application form and put the power strips in. We think it will save $123.52 in energy costs this year! Fourth graders also taught first graders about energy conservation.
For the community, we collected about 6,720 cans to recycle. We also planted plants, because energy is wasted to deliver produce. We will also participate in the Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR pledge drive. Ashland fourth graders will participate in the 10-10-10 Challenge. We learned a lot about saving energy and helping our school and community this year.

NATIONAL ELEMENTARY LEVEL SCHOOL OF THE YEAR FINALIST
James A Caywood Elementary School
Edgewood, KY
Project Title: “We’re going to save this Earth, going to do things right”
Project Advisers: Lisa Dern and Renee Topmiller
Our main goal this year was to educate the students, staff, and community on conserving energy, and to inform them of the benefits associated with being “Energy WISE”.
Keeping that goal in mind, we first decided to set up a booth at our school Fall Festival. This way we could reach families and students early in the year to get them thinking about the importance of saving energy.
Throughout the year, we were able to complete many other activities to spread the word about “Going Green”. For example, we held an energy assembly and energy week at our school; we made an energy music video that was posted to YouTube, and even submitted it to news/talk shows. We even made the effort to connect face to face with our community when we went to a local grocery store to pass out reusable bags stuffed with fliers promoting the district energy fair!
We also work with a group of fourth and fifth grade students that collect all recyclable material for our school. All faculty and students participate in this program.
Throughout these activities, hopefully it is clear that we are trying to save the Earth and do things right!

Phillip A. Sharp Middle School
Butler, KY
Project Title: Save N.R.G.
Project Adviser: Patricia Brownfield
This year we wanted to teach people about energy and energy savings. We started with an appliance and energy audit of our building. Next, we contacted our Energy Manager, Becki Lanter, for help. We developed a survey to send to Southern Elementary and Pendleton County High School. Our goal was to help our Energy Manager complete the appliance survey for our district. We also revisited the energy audit to find out if we were saving as much energy as possible. It was very interesting what we learned and we made recommendations to our school’s Site Based Decision Making Council. Next we learned of a study using VendingMisers® to reduce both the energy used and the cost of operating soft drink and vending machines. We targeted our soft drink machines because we had more of them. Our final goal and project was to hold what has become our annual Energy Carnival for the fourth grade students in our district. Our sponsor had been asked by the fourth grade teachers if we were going to hold the Energy Carnival again this year…and we said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Richardsville Elementary School
Bowling Green, KY
Project Title: Changing Habits Changes the World!
Project Adviser: Manesha Ford
Boom, bang, solar power! This year we moved into the nation’s first net zero school building. Last year we learned about sources of energy and how solar power makes our school special. This year we focused on how our building is energy efficient. We became experts about our school and created presentations on insulated concrete forms walls, solar, kitchen equipment, natural lighting, and rain gardens. The presentations were given at our open house, a Kentucky NEED High Performance School building workshop, to Mrs. Beshear, and to the students.
Recycling was our focus this year because we have a recycling hallway and we must change our habits to support being “green” in our “green” building. A recycling bin contest was held for classrooms to make their own bin. We also co-sponsored “Indoor Snowmen” with our parent teacher organization. Each grade level made a snowman out of recycled materials. Our sixth grade energy team is writing a book about recycling using the pictures of the snowmen. The Museum of Solid Waste and Energy exhibits were completed to share the connection between recycling and energy with the community, parents, and students. Another way we supported changing our habits to be energy efficient was through monthly energy assessments and feedback. We looked for lights being off, and windows and doors staying closed.

NATIONAL SENIOR LEVEL ROOKIE SCHOOL OF TRHE YEAR
Randall K. Cooper High School
Union, KY
Project Title: Energy Carnivals and Expo – Cooper 2011
Project Adviser: Sara Lainhart
The Energy Aficionados of Cooper High School created an energy project primarily for area elementary students. During the Energy Carnivals we conducted, students went through transformations using skits with props, sources of energy tri folds we constructed, the Science of Energy experiments, Energy Works experiments, and the Energy Carnival games. We contacted the Energy Manager of our school district who was the liaison between the schools, created a brochure, and wrote e-letters to all of the area schools.
We also began a recycling project to obtain a picnic table made from the #2 plastics we collect. We made it our “entry fee” for the students to come to our energy carnivals and expo. We also asked the media team to work with us within our school to promote the project by making a series of videos for the schools to view dealing with energy and recycling.
At our Energy Expo area businesses, students, and families learned about energy, met together for networking, and enjoyed student led lessons from Forms of Energy, Energy Transformations, Energy Works, Science of Energy experiments, and Energy Carnival games. The experiments centered on motion, heat, light, and sound; the games centered on sources, forms, and uses of energy.

Fayette County Public Schools
Lexington, KY
Project Title: Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Fayette County Project
Adviser: Tresine Logsdon
Fayette County Public Schools is composed of 33 elementary schools, 12 middle schools, five high schools, two technical centers, and four alternative programs. Our total student enrollment for 2010-2011 is 36,895. The school system has made dramatic improvements in energy conservation and management. For example, Athens-Chilesburg Elementary received The Environmental Protection Agency’s elite ENERGY STAR Certification in 2010. ENERGY STAR is the national mark of excellence in energy performance, where facilities are assigned an ENERGY STAR Rating based on energy usage compared to other similar buildings. There are also several new buildings that are being designed and constructed to reduce energy consumption. Locust Trace Agriscience Center is being constructed as a net zero school, meaning that with energy efficient building components the facility is expected to generate more energy than it consumes.
Fayette County Schools understands the importance of investing in a management program for energy and sustainability. Without a management program, escalating prices for use of our natural resources will have significant financial consequences for the schools and community. Building an educational program in concert with a resource conservation program will provide our students with tools that will prepare them to be responsible citizens in the 21st century.

Kenton County School District
Ft. Wright, KY
Project Title: Work the Circuit
Project Adviser: Christine Baker
This year was a year for firsts! The first Kenton County School District’s energy efficiency fair, our first solar car race, our first home energy assessment program, and our first interactive sustainability outdoor laboratory!
We had many goals this year to improve our overall energy education program. We hosted the first “Work the Circuit– Saving Energy Makes Cents” energy efficiency fair. We had vendor booths, educational booths, non-profit booths, student booths, presentations on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and the first Kenton County School District Solar Classic. The Solar Classic was held during the “Work the Circuit” event. All of our middle and high school E=WISE2 teams participated by designing and building solar race cars.
One of our high school teams piloted the new home energy assessment program. They created the forms and reporting tools and conducted home energy assessments. This program will be reproduced at our other high schools next year.
Students and staff worked together to design the District’s interactive sustainability outdoor laboratory and construction is under way! Next year we will be working with teachers and students to create curriculum to be used with the outdoor laboratory.