Creating an Energy Ethic
Blog by Jim Brown, NBCT, CEM7/8 STEM Teacher, Sand CreekOn-site Energy Manager There are various reasons for instituting an energy management program. It might be to reduce expenditures on utilities, or perhaps reduce carbon emissions and help the environment. Still yet, it might be to use your facilities as a learning lab by connecting what…
Read MorePower in Numbers
Blog by Jim Brown, NBCT, CEM7/8 STEM Teacher, Sand CreekOn-site Energy Manager What an energy manager does can vary greatly from one organization to another. Some energy managers focus solely on managing building energy by utilizing software to control what and when things run. Other energy managers focus on being in buildings to verify that things are…
Read MoreEnergy Awareness Month
What are your students doing to celebrate Energy Awareness Month? Each year, the U.S. Department of Energy designates October as Energy Awareness Month. This is a perfect opportunity to reflect on how we generate, use, and save energy every day. Since it also happens to be Halloween season, we’re adding a little playful twist—because energy…
Read MoreHigh School EV Challenge With PG&E Crosses the Finish Line!
An engaging STEM internship program concluded on August 5 when teams raced electric go-karts at the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Electric Safety Academy in Livermore, CA. The EV Challenge design-build-race activities were integrated into a comprehensive summer internship program. The program kicked off at the new PG&E headquarters in Oakland, CA, with orientation week at…
Read MoreNational Electricity Day
Open Letter Elon Musk, Tesla Motor Co Dear Elon, Thank you for naming your car company after me. Doing so has renewed interest in who I was and what I contributed to society. Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi have had better name recognition until now. As a token of my appreciation: you can make EVs…
Read MoreStudent STEM Workshop at the Offshore Technology Conference
On May 8, 2025, Energy4me held a successful Student STEM Workshop at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston with nearly 100 students from the Houston area to learn about the industry. NEED had the pleasure of facilitating the student workshop. The workshop was sponsored by ExxonMobil. Check out this great video produced by the Drilling…
Read MorePi Day and NEED Education at Rochester School
March 14th is International Pi Day. This year, at Rochester School, students from science, math, and technology organized a show and tell of their best projects from class for Pi Day. Rochester School is a private K-12 school in Chia, Colombia that prides itself on its energy efficiency and sustainability. It is the only LEED…
Read MoreCelebrating 45 Years of NEED Curriculum
Sometime in the past 45 years, you may have attended a NEED Energy Education Workshop, where you mastered the Science of Energy stations, made an anemometer and designed wind turbine blades; observed UV beads change color in the sun and tested variables affecting photovoltaic panels; or tried “Getting the Oil Out” with a straw and…
Read MoreDominion Energy Wind for Schools
Hampton Roads Students Harness the Power of Wind, Thanks to NEED and Dominion Energy Thanks to a partnership between the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation and the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project, two Hampton Roads schools received a 30-foot-tall micro wind turbine to demonstrate the production of wind energy. The schools also received solar panels and two 12-volt…
Read MoreDecarbonization
The term “decarbonization” is popping up everywhere. But what does it mean? Decarbonization is a method of climate change mitigation used for removal or reduction of carbon dioxide output into the atmosphere. Much of what I hear and read about decarbonization is focused on the cost associated with reducing CO2 emissions through efficiency upgrades, such as installing…
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