NEED Annual Report 2014

THE NEED PROJECT

2014 NATIONAL ENERGY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT

ANNUAL REPORT

Need Mission Statement The National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education association incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The mission of NEED is to promote an energy conscious and educated society by creating effective networks of students, educators, business, government, and community leaders to design and deliver objective, multi-sided energy education programs. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1980, NEED is a dynamic, engaging program present in thousands of schools nationwide.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS NEED Staff

4

NEED Board of Directors

5

Message from the Executive Director

6

State and Regional Programs

Message from the Chairman

7

State and Regional Contacts

31

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Alabama

33

California

33

Connecticut

37

Florida

37

Georgia

40

Financial Statements

This is need 2014 About NEED

State Award Winners 30

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NEED, Common Core State Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards

Hawaii

41

17

Illinois

43

Teacher Advisory Board

18

Kentucky

44

Louisiana

48

Massachusetts

48

Michigan

51

New Mexico

52

North Carolina

52

Ohio

55

Rhode Island

59

Tennessee

60

Texas

62

Utah

63

Virginia

63

West Virginia

64

Wisconsin

64

Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement Intro to the Youth Awards Program

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Youth Awards Program Sponsors

20

Students of the Year

21

Distinguished Service Awards

23

Primary Level School of the Year

25

Elementary Level School of the Year

25

Junior Level School of the Year

26

Senior Level School of the Year

26

Special Project of the Year

27

Primary Rookie of the Year

28

Elementary Rookie of the Year

28

Junior Rookie of the Year

29

Senior Rookie of the Year

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PARTNERSHIP AND STATE SPOTLIGHTS Nationwide Partnerships

32

Alaska, Florida, Encana, California (PG&E, NRG)

34

Hawaii Energy

42

Kentucky

46

Massachusetts, Michigan, New York

50

Safety Quest

56

The Ohio Energy Project (OEP)

57

Rhode Island, Tennessee, Mississippi

58

Pennsylvania (Greater Philadelphia and PECO)

65

Sponsors and Partners

66

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NEED Staff Mary Spruill

Annie Rasor

Executive Director

Curriculum Associate

Amy Constant

Karen Reagor

Program Associate

Director, Kentucky NEED Project

Yvonne Cramer

Todd Rogers

Creative Director

Curriculum and Training Associate, CEM

Sandra Harben

Barry Scott

Accounting

State Program Director, California

Melanie Harper

Pam Seader

Program Associate

Program Coordinator

Emily Hawbaker

Caryn Turrel

Curriculum Director

Curriculum and Training Associate

David Keene

Cindy Welchko

General Counsel

Curriculum Associate

Vernon Kimball Curriculum and Training Associate

Rebecca Lamb Program Director

Kim Moats Barnes Program Associate

Wendi Moss Program and Training Coordinator

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NEED DISTRIBUTION CENTER Cindy Foster Rick Hall Melissa Spencer Bonny Spruill

NEED BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Wendy Wiedenbeck, Encana, Chairman Maggie Downey, Cape Light Compact and Barnstable County (MA), Vice Chairman Randall Luthi, National Ocean Industries Association, Treasurer Kristy Monk, NiSource, Secretary

MEMBERS Guy Caruso, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Center for Strategic and International Studies Kristi DesJarlais, Phillips 66 Linda Lung, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Kate Marks, National Association of State Energy Officials Michael Perna, ConEdison Solutions Barry Russell, Independent Petroleum Association of America Al Ryan, PECO/Exelon Wayne Yonkelowitz, Fayette County Schools (WV)

HONORARY BOARD MEMBERS AND FORMER CHAIRMEN Paula Barnett, BP Constance Beatty, Kennedy Middle Grade School Phil Cochrane, BP Leslie Eden, PennWell Tom Fry, National Ocean Industries Association Kevin Galligan, Cape Light Compact Diane Lear, National Hydropower Association Paul Loeffelman, American Electric Power Maurice Royster, Equitable Resources Linda Silinsky, Schlumberger Oilfield Services Bob Stewart, National Ocean Industries Association Henry Sullivan, American Electric Power John Weiner, U.S. Energy Information Administration (ret.)

Richard Zuercher, Dominion

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MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR As we wrap up the 2013-2014 school year, all of us at NEED take a moment to think about the great things that have happened this year. This list is very long! I am reminded what a great team of teachers, students, and partners NEED has. The NEED network has become what we always hoped it would be: teachers, students, and partners working together to understand energy and to teach others.

It is this common goal – learning and teaching about energy – that makes NEED unique. While some organizations simply create lessons to meet new learning standards or produce curriculum for certain topics, NEED has always believed that teaching about energy is important – no matter how many standards it fulfills in the classroom. Teachers, students, and the general public, must understand energy to make smart energy decisions. NEED’s expertise continues to be in collaborating with educators to create the best energy curriculum and training available. Even more important, we want it to be fun for teachers and for students.

The teacher training, the curriculum development, the teacher and school grants, and the student leadership development activities would not be possible without a great staff and engaged, committed partners and members of the NEED Board of Directors. NEED’s partners come in all shapes and sizes. They may be major, multi-national companies or one person geology offices. They may be involved in natural gas or they may install solar modules on homes and schools. No matter where they are or what their area of expertise is, NEED’s partners are engaged in our work to support curriculum and teacher training for schools all over the United States. Our partners believe in what we do and they believe in the importance of teaching kids and teachers about energy.

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In the 2013-2014 school year, NEED was fortunate to host workshops on four continents - in London, United Kingdom; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Doha; Qatar; Calgary, Canada; and Brisbane, Australia. These opportunities came because of our long partnership with the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Together, we hosted workshops for students and teachers in each of these communities – providing them with hands-on energy explorations and career exploration opportunities as well. NEED is busy and going strong in the United States and abroad. With new curriculum launching frequently, the portfolio just keeps getting bigger. We have also taken the time to gather teacher ideas and revisit some of our most popular curriculum too. When the school year starts, check out the new Science of Energy – now complete at 4 discreet levels for students.

I have the best job anywhere! I get to go to work every day enjoying what I do, working with a highly skilled and dedicated team, and learning about energy all the time. It’s nerdy and it’s fun. The opportunities in energy are endless. I hope today’s NEED kids will grab the energy jobs of the future and turn all their knowledge into great energy careers. Energy is fun. Energy is real. Energy makes things work. Let’s continue to harness the energy of our students, teachers, and partners to continue NEED’s success.

With many thanks,

MESSAGE FROM THE Chairman For NEED, 2013 was another year of delivering comprehensive, objective curriculum about all forms of energy—across the U.S. and even around the globe. And as the discussion or debate about energy resources continued to be front and center, I’m proud of the role the organization played in keeping the dialogue balanced and based on science. NEED has set a high bar for energy curriculum, I’m proud to say that this year, we raised the bar even higher.

The NEED team continues to amaze and impress with their dedication, determination, and passionto carry out the mission of the organization of promoting an energy conscious and educated society. From our newly designed website to the reorganized resource library to our entrée into social media (a shout out to our 1400+ Facebook fans!), all are intended to ease our stakeholders’ journey to credible and critical energy education resources. Students, educators, business, government and community leaders alike have come to rely on NEED’s multi-sided energy education programs. Improving and expanding our delivery systems played a critical role in NEED’s ability to maintain its position of leadership in energy education in 2013.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, ‘it takes a village!’ At NEED, we are blessed to have a strong village. Our family of students, educators, business and community leaders all served as NEED champions.

Champions whose passion and commitment to the organization played an important and critical role in our continued success.

Whether you supported our mission financially, gave of your time or gave of your talents, know that we couldn’t have done it without you. It truly takes a village.

At no time is the teams’ hard work and dedication more evident than at Youth Awards. This annual celebration is the culmination of so much hard work across the NEED family and truly showcases our mission in action. As a member of the NEED family, I challenge you to do whatever you can to make participating in this event a priority in the coming year.

People learn best by doing. I’m so proud to be a part of an organization that is focused on ‘doing’ and ‘doing’ it so well. Kudos to the ENTIRE VILLAGE for a job well done! I can’t wait to see what you teach us next.

With deep admiration,

Wendy J. Wiedenbeck

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FINANCIAL Statements The NATIONAL ENERGY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT PROJECT STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED

DECEMBER 31, 2013 Conferences and Youth Awards

In-Kind Contributions

Curriculum and Kit Sales

Interest and Other Income

Program Development General and Training AdminiStrative Conferences Fundraising Youth Awards Workshops and Program Conferences

Curriculum Development

Grants and Contributions

REVENUE AND SUPPORT Grants and Contributions Curriculum and Kit Sales Conferences and Youth Awards In-Kind Contributions Interest Income Other Income

TOTAL REVENUES INCREASE IN NET ASSETS Net Assets, Beginning of Year

Kits and Materials

EXPENSES $4,297,411 $371,683 $325,044 $44,650 $2,265 $25,659

$5,066,712 (244,679)

$2,317,154 Net Assets, End of the Year $2,072,474 8

Program Administration

Workshops and Conferences Kits and Materials Program Administration Curriculum Development Youth Awards Program Training Conferences Program Development Total Program Services

$1,867,641 $937,110 $856,855 $631,862 $534,372 $193,023 $72,678 $5,093,541

General and Administrative Fundraising Total Supporting Services

$168,436 $49,414 $217,850

Total Expenses

$5,311,391

ASSETS Cash and Cash Equivalents

$1,088,762 Certificates of Deposit

$396,472 Grants and Contributions Receivable $581,048 Inventory $203,004 Prepaid Expenses $13,596 Property and Equipment, net $5,365 Deposits $2,189

TOTAL Assets

$2,290,436

LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses Refundable Advances

Deferred Rent Total Liabilities

$140,246 $64,421 $13,294 $217,961

Unrestricted

Temporarily Restricted

$232,334 $1,840,141

Total Net Assets

$2,072,475

Total Liabilities and Net Assets

$2,290,436

KEY FINANCIAL TRENDS

2013

2012

$8000 $7000 $6000 $5000 $4000 $3000 $2000 $1000 $0

2,290

2,551

ASSETS

2,072

2,317

NET ASSETS

5,067

4,841

REVENUE

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This is NEED 2014 ABOUT NEED

Almost 35 years ago, The NEED Project began as a one-day celebration of energy education when National Energy Education Day was recognized by a Joint Congressional Resolution. In the same year, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation stressing the need for comprehensive energy education in our schools, a reduction of our dependence of fossil fuels, and increasing use of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. Since its founding, NEED has kept its Kids Teaching Kids philosophy as a fundamental principle of NEED programming – encouraging students to explore, experiment, and engage, and encouraging teachers to embrace student leadership in the classroom. NEED trains and assists teachers in harnessing the energy of the classroom – the energy of students.

NEED is expanding and evolving to best meet the needs of teachers and students – in the classroom and beyond. In just the last decade The NEED Project has grown to encompass a curriculum portfolio of over 130 teacher and student guides designed to teach teachers and students about energy. At the same time, the training opportunities offered by NEED expanded to include over 20 varieties of teacher professional development and training for school district energy personnel as well. NEED’s work in afterschool programs, student clubs, scouting groups, and home school networks also continues to grow.

NEED students and teachers understand energy. They are local experts and leaders in community discussions on energy use, energy efficiency and new energy technologies. They reach out to the public to actively teach about energy and energy decisions and they practice smart energy decision making with their own families and in their own homes. NEED’s reach, program, and portfolio are very different than they were in the early years, but they still focus on the important student leadership development that sets NEED apart from being just another curriculum organization. A balanced approach to a discussion of energy is fundamental to how NEED curriculum is written, delivered, and shared.

NEED designs and delivers curriculum and support for virtually any classroom and at any grade level– from Kindergarten to high school and beyond– from science and pre-engineering labs to language arts and afterschool clubs. Students use hands-on, inquiry based lessons to explore the physics and chemistry of energy. They engineer turbines and generators, testing their models for maximum electricity output. Students write and perform plays about energy in drama class, calculate payback periods of energy efficient appliances in math class, and discuss the history and human impact of energy use in social studies.

Students learn how to design buildings better to maximize energy efficiency and to keep our buildings healthy. In career and technology classrooms students are installing solar panels, monitoring wind turbine output, learning about oil and gas exploration in shale, and exploring transportation technologies.

NEED students are the future of the energy workforce. Students interested in engineering, science, economics, environmental sciences, law, geology and a host of other disciplines have a role in the energy industry.

We work hard to help teachers meet the requirements of state standards, Common Core, and the Next Generation Science Standards. As states adopt their new standards, NEED will continue working to provide state alignments to our entire curriculum portfolio. We know this helps teachers teach more energy in their classrooms, and we’ll continue to work hard to give teachers all they need.

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TRAINING

Educators know that participating in NEED workshops provides them an opportunity to improve their personal energy knowledge while receiving valuable training and ideas to use in their classrooms – no matter what grade level they teach. Educators report that the curriculum is appropriate for individual grade levels and that the training provided allows them to return to their classrooms and use the materials immediately. It is an honor to know that 100% of teachers attending NEED workshops report that they would recommend the workshop to their peers and that they will use the materials in their classrooms.

“The conferEnce /workshop was excellent!! I loved the hands-on activities and how the students could interact with the lessons to learn. Super Job!”

NEED sponsors and partners know that supporting NEED programming provides teachers with the best in energy education and teacher support. NEED is committed to giving teachers the best and most up-to-date energy information possible and the tools to share that information with their classrooms. As educators request new materials, NEED works quickly to bring new curriculum modules to the classroom. For 2014, we worked hard to take the very popular Science of Energy curriculum and distill it into 3 distinct levels – elementary, intermediate, and secondary. Teachers asked, and we were fortunate to have a great team of teachers working to collaborate on the new guides.

EDUCATOR FROM DanVILLE, KY Workshop

other 5.26%

K-2

13.80%

3-5

35.25%

GRADES TAUGHT BY NEED TEACHERS

6-8

38.08%

9-12 19.47%

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Teachers continue to report that they do not receive adequate energy instruction in their college and university courses, yet state and national standards have significant sections devoted to the science of energy and to the energy resources used to provide electricity, transportation, and products. Working with education and energy advisors, NEED designs and delivers professional development opportunities for teachers that not only educate, but also energize and remind teachers of the fun that is possible in the classroom.

Whether attending a one-day workshop or the five-day National Energy Conference for Educators, teachers interact and share ideas with their peers. Speakers from local and national energy organizations share information about careers in the energy industry and the exciting energy technologies in development today. In addition, as school districts continue to seek ways to reduce budgets – many turn to energy conservation as a way to reduce overall costs.

NEED hosts High Performance Schools Conferences for school district facilities personnel.

As consumers and community members, educators are a vital link in the process needed to make energy a priority at home, in the classroom, and in daily conversation. NEED believes in treating educators as the professionals they are, and in making their time with NEED instructors valuable, entertaining and educational.

Teachers often evaluate NEED training as “the best professional development I’ve ever attended.”

NEED’s classroom and training offerings are robust, allowing all educators to find what they need within the NEED curriculum. NEED has long delivered energy curriculum and training with the science of energy as a foundation to a deeper understanding of energy and all of its aspects.

Whether delivered to teachers, students or to energy professionals, NEED makes training fun, engaging and worthwhile. People participating in NEED training share that the experience is a good use of their time and that their expectations are met and exceeded.

These are factors of success NEED works to achieve each day.

NEED curriculum and training focuses on several steps in the energy education process. Those steps, when taught together, make up a comprehensive energy education program in a classroom, an afterschool program, or a technical school or college.

DID THE WORKSHOP MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS? ALL EXPECTATIONS MET 73.74% MOST EXPECTATIONS MET 22.66% FEW EXPECTATIONS MET 0.69% NO EXPECTATIONS MET

0.12%

“Awesome! Best professional development I have ever attended.”

EDUCATOR FROM Baton Rouge, LA WORKSHOP

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THE SCIENCE OF ENERGY Students at all grade levels learn about the forms of energy— heat, light, motion, sound, nuclear energy, and electrical energy— with age-appropriate, hands-on explorations that emphasize the scientific process and an application of newly gained energy knowledge to understanding energy sources, electricity generation and more.

RENEWABLE AND NONRENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY The curriculum provides comprehensive, objective information and activities on the energy sources that fuel our country, including economic and environmental impacts. Students explore the history of energy, energy in current events, and consider future energy development opportunities and challenges. They understand that certain energy sources may be better choices for specific energy needs, and they discuss and debate the energy sources we use today and will use in the future. NEED believes in teaching about all energy sources and helping students understand that there are many things to consider when making decisions about resource use.

“I have been to over 50 hours of professonal development this summer and this has been the BEST training yet! The WHOLE class was engaged the ENTIRE time. I have FINALLY learned how to make science become fun in my class.”

EDUCATOR FROM Houston, TX

ELECTRICITY NEED students learn about the atom and the particles that make up the atom. They understand electricity as an energy carrier. They learn about electrons and how they move; they build batteries and electromagnets. They explore circuits and learn how electricity is generated and measured and research fusion and fission, photovoltaics and superconductors, electricity regulation, and politics and policy. Students consider cleaner-coal technologies, renewable electricity, and natural gas fired electricity generation.

They research nuclear energy as a growing option for generating the nation’s electricity.

TRANSPORTATION NEED’s transportation materials cover the transportation fuels and vehicles in use today and the fuels and vehicles of the future.

Students learn about gasoline, diesel, hybrid electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrids.

EFFICIENCY & CONSERVATION Learning to use energy wisely is the capstone component of the NEED program. Students learn to read utility meters, use light meters, investigate phantom loads, evaluate information from EnergyGuide labels and make the most use of the SmartMeter installed on their home. They learn about caulking, weather-stripping, and programmable thermostats. They monitor energy consumption and explore ways to reduce it— like using ENERGY STAR® products at home and at school.

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SYNTHESIS OF ENERGY INFORMATION

EVALUATION

NEED’s curriculum incorporates activities to help synthesize energy information, create valuable connections between science and social science, and apply that knowledge to decision making. Students undertake problem based learning activities and explore possible opportunities and challenges for many energy decisions.

Evaluation is a high priority for all of NEED’s programming areas.

Teachers and students participate in pre and post knowledge assessments during training workshops and in the classroom. The Pre/Post Energy Poll provides educators with a tool to assess student knowledge of energy. Teachers complete evaluations at local energy workshops and at all training events. Longitudinal evaluations are completed three months and one year after a teacher is introduced to NEED, and continue after that to determine maximum impact and efficiency of NEED programming.

I will Recommend NEED Materials to Others

STRONGLY AGREE

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AGREE

NEUTRAL DISAGREE

NEED’s Teacher Advisory Board of outstanding educators and subject matter experts review NEED materials for scientific accuracy, comprehensiveness, objectivity, educational soundness and effectiveness. NEED participants—students, educators, sponsors, and partners—evaluate materials and training programs, as well as new activities. Using evaluation tools included with every unit, teachers evaluate individual activities and the entire NEED program. NEED believes in producing the highest quality curriculum and training possible.

STRONGLY DISAGREE

With annual updates as a core principle of NEED’s work, teacher feedback is immediately reviewed and alterations and course corrections are made if needed each year. NEED adapts its curriculum delivery to assist teachers too – and NEED’s evaluation shows that access to online curriculum is important, but teachers still find hard copies best for their use and are thrilled to find NEED’s e-pubs for use on ipads and tablets alongside pdfs and print copies. Teachers use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at times in the classroom, but continue to rely on email, mail, and word of mouth to learn about new opportunities.

COMPARED WITH OTHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT YOU’VE ATTENDED, HOW WOULD YOU RATE THIS WORKSHOP? ONE OF THE BEST 45.49% VERY GOOD 44.68% JUST AS GOOD AS OTHERS 7.97% NOT AS GOOD 0.53% ONE OF THE WORST 0.12% 15

75.88%

72.04%

THE WORKSHOP INCREASED MY ENERGY KNOWLEDGE

STRONGLY AGREE

AGREE

NEUTRAL

21.73%

THE WORKSHOP WILL ALLOW ME TO INCREASE MY STUDENTS’ ENERGY KNOWLEDGE 19.18%

DISAGREE 0.32%

0.16%

0.93%

STRONGLY DISAGREE

RECOGNITION NEED encourages and rewards student leadership and innovation by sponsoring a Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement.

Schools participating in NEED’s programs are invited to submit portfolios of their energy activities. Exceptional teachers and students are recognized for their efforts at the state and national level and are invited to attend NEED’s National Recognition Ceremony held each June in Washington, D.C. At the conference students work with their peers to explore new energy activities while NEED teachers have the opportunity to network and re-energize for the coming school year. In 2014-2015, NEED will expand the Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement to include online submission of comprehensive energy education programs and also to include the submission of smaller projects that deserve recognition as well.

Great things are happening at NEED! We look forward to working together with our teachers, students, and partners for a great 2014-2015 school year.

“It was an amazing experience. Very interactive and I learned a lot about energy myself!”

EDUCATOR FROM EWA BEACH, HI WORKSHOP

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0.77%

0.16%

0.28%

NEED, COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS AND NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

Teachers across the country have been reviewing and integrating new standards into their classrooms. The Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards are new to teachers and provide both challenges and opportunities in the classroom. NEED is already ready with great content, classroom management techniques, student development skills, and the teacher training needed for schools to achieve success with these new standards.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been adopted in forty-five states, four territories, the District of Columbia, and by the Department of Defense Education Activity. CCSS are divided into two main areas: English and Language Arts; and Mathematics.

Because NEED curriculum guides already have a cross-curricular approach, many of them align well with CCSS standards, especially at the intermediate level with respect to developing and defending a position. The CCSS do not indicate specific titles for teaching specific skills. As a result, teachers can include more energy-related activities and reading within their classrooms. NEED can help teachers meet standards in reading, writing, and math while providing relevant lessons in energy and sustainability. All NEED curriculum materials have been correlated to the CCSS and these correlation spreadsheets are available to educators on our website.

The final version of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) was released to the public in early April 2013; the adoption process within states and territories is ongoing. The major difference between NGSS and the National Science Education Standards that preceded them is the integration of spiraling concepts and engineering practices. Another important distinction of NGSS is the strong emphasis on modeling concepts. Modeling begins as early as first grade, with the heaviest emphasis on modeling at the high school level.

NEED curriculum guides provide many opportunities for teachers and students to model the energy standards. Tracing a carbon atom through the carbon cycle, or watching breakfast syrup “hydraulically fracture” a gelatinous material allows students to understand things they cannot physically see for themselves. Designing a solar home or analyzing weather data to site a wind turbine allows students to develop models while showing how engineers work every day. The ability of teachers to use NEED materials across grade levels will also allow teachers to bridge any learning gaps in their classrooms as they adopt the more rigorous NGSS. NEED’s content and recommended classroom processes engage and excite kids.

What a great way to meet the standards!

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TEACHER ADVISORY BOARD SHELLY BAUMANN

ROBERT LAZAR

Rockford, MI

Albuquerque, NM

CONSTANCE BEATTY

LESLIE LIVELY

Kankakee, IL

Porters Falls, WV

AMY CONSTANT

JENNIFER WINTERBOTTOM

Raleigh, NC

Pottstown, PA

NINA CORLEY

MOLLIE MUKHAMEDOV

Galveston, TX

Port St. Lucie, FL

REGINA DONOUR

DON PRUETT JR.

Whitesburg, KY

Sumner, WA

LINDA FONNER

JOSH RUBIN

New Martinsville, WV

Palo Alto, CA

SAMANTHA FORBES

JOANNE SPAZIANO

Vienna, VA

Cranston, RI

MICHELLE GARLICK

GINA SPENCER

Buffalo Grove, IL

Virginia Beach, VA

ROBERT GRIEGOLIET

TOM SPENCER

Naperville, IL

Chesapeake, VA

VIOLA HENRY

JENNIFER TROCHEZ MACLEAN

Thaxton, VA

Los Angeles, CA

BOB HODASH

JOANNE TROMBLEY

Bakersfield, CA

West Chester, PA

DANEL HOGAN

JEN VARRELLA

Tucson, AZ

Fort Collins, CO

GREG HOLMAN

CAROLYN WUEST

Paradise, CA

Pensacola, FL

LINDA HUTTON

WAYNE YONKELOWITZ

Kitty Hawk, NC

MATTHEW INMAN Spokane, WA

BARBARA LAZAR Albuquerque, NM

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Fayetteville, WV

STUDENT LEADERSHIP AND

THE YOUTH AWARDS Program FOR ENERGY ACHIEVEMENT NEED’s teacher training, classroom curriculum, and other programs all focus on teaching energy concepts and developing student skills.

One of the things that makes NEED successful is how we deliver energy information in an educational setting. NEED engages students. We have for over 34 years. Engaging kids in hands-on, minds-on learning is not new to NEED. In NEED activities, kids work in groups to solve problems. They work together to research and design presentations about energy topics. They create energy outreach programs to share with their local community members.

These skills: collaborating, sharing, teaching, public speaking, even how to dress when you make a presentation, are all part of what makes NEED unique in student leadership. NEED kids know energy, but they also know how to get things done.

It is students that the Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement was created to recognize. Throughout the NEED network, students are doing great energy related things. They are learning about the forms of energy and energy sources, they are exploring new energy technologies, they are touring natural gas drilling sites and visiting hydroelectric power plants, and they are creating video presentations and public service announcements sharing their knowledge of energy. They are helping retrofit homes and schools with energy efficiency tools. Most important, they are learning. And they are teaching too.

over 130 submitted projects

During the year, students, schools, and student groups are encouraged to compile a portfolio of their energy education activities. In April, these portfolios are submitted to NEED for review at the state and national level. Teams of energy professionals and educators review the work and recognize excellence in energy education at state awards programs and NEED’s annual Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement event in Washington, D.C. each June.

In 2014-2015, NEED will expand its Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement to include awards for specific areas of energy, for example: Best Energy Efficiency Project; Best Education Outreach Project, Best Science and Technology Project, and more. In addition, NEED’s Facebook, Twitter, Blog and Instagram networks will encourage students to submit projects of any size for recognition.

Have a one-day project that was awesome? Submit it! Undertake a comprehensive energy education program? Submit it! There will be new criteria and an all online submission process too. We recognize that every classroom may not have the time or ability to undertake a huge project – but we want to recognize every great energy project.

Watch www.NEED.org for more.

21 states 4 day Leadership conference in the district of columbia

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2014 YOUTH AWARDS Program

Sponsors

AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CAPE LIGHT COMPACT CONEDISON SOLUTIONS CONOCOPHILLIPS DOMINION ENCANA NRG ENERGY KENTUCKY DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND INDEPENDENCE LOUISVILLE GAS AND ELECTRIC/KENTUCKY UTILITIES NATIONAL GRID NATIONAL OCEAN INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION NSTAR OHIO ENERGY PROJECT PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC COMPANY PHILLIPS 66 RHODE ISLAND OFFICE OF ENERGY RESOURCES SHELL SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION – ENERGY DIVISION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

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Student of the Year: Amber Lipsky Much of what makes Amber NEED’s 2014 Student of the Year is obvious in everything she does. Her work at Scituate High School with the Scituate High School NEED team exemplifies the best of student leadership and commitment to energy and the environment. She has helped lead a team that hosts energy workshops in Rhode Island, supports Energy Expos in the state, and teaches at community events and more. Amber attributes her passion for the environment and her chosen career to her participation and leadership in the Scituate High School club and the mentorship of teacher Shannon Donovan.

Amber says, “The NEED Project and everything I have learned as a result of my involvement in it has changed my life for the better and has helped me improve the wellbeing of others and the earth as well. The skills I have acquired and developed will benefit me far into the future”. Amber’s career decision to seek a degree and career in Biomimicry is exciting and will certainly give her the expertise needed to find new ways to use and conserve energy in our global community.

Shannon Donovan, Amber’s mentor and teacher, says, “Amber is a talented, responsible, motivated and cheerful young woman, and she embodies all it means to be a NEED kid. She has written and directed a film about transportation fuels and food, and has shared her work with her fellow students and local 3rd graders as well.”

NEED is proud to choose Amber as one of its 2014 Students of the Year! She is an exceptional student and a great teacher. We expect to see many great things from her!

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Student of the Year: IAN MUNN As NEED was selecting the 2014 Student of the Year, it became obvious that one student has been working so hard that taking time to apply for the award just was not possible. For this reason, NEED is honored to present Ian Munn with the 2014 Student of the Year Award. Ian’s work for NEED both behind the scenes and as a manager of the NEED Youth Awards Program is important and always well done. Ian came to NEED many years ago under the mentorship of Heidi Steinbrink at Oakwood High School outside of Dayton, Ohio. His work in high school led to his work in college and his work at NEED during summers and spring break.

In high school, Ian’s dedication to energy education was evident – he represented the energy club well, he helped teach, helped plan, and helped share all they learned. Ian was quick to see energy as a potential career path as well and sought opportunities to engage more with NEED on the national level – having worked hard at the state level for the Ohio Energy Project.

Ian’s good humor and attitude got him recognized as a great member of the NEED team and NEED is lucky to have him with us even now as he begins the last year of his college career at DePauw University in Indiana.

Ian’s leadership as a manager of the NEED Youth Awards Program has expanded his capabilities, allowed him to fine-tune his skills and will prepare him for a career in environmental science. He is always willing to do the hard work, to spend the extra time, and to do what’s necessary to achieve his goals and NEED’s too.

Thanks Ian for all you’ve done for this organization!

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2014 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Linda Fonner Linda Fonner is recognized with the 2014 Distinguished Service Award because all of her work in her West Virginia classroom and on behalf of NEED around the United States showcases what distinguished service is all about. Linda came to NEED over 20 years ago – when NEED was small, but had great potential. Her first formal NEED experience was a two-day workshop in Charleston, West Virginia, that came complete with a midnight fire alarm and the creation of a decades long friendship with so many NEED teachers and facilitators. Linda is a tireless advocate of energy education.

She teaches energy in her classroom at New Martinsville School in New Martinsville, West Virginia. She is a NEED facilitator who has led almost 100 workshops for NEED in West Virginia and around the United States. She is always helpful, always improving NEED, and always learning about energy and finding new ways to make

learning about science engaging to kids of all ages. Linda is a Presidential Math and Science Awardee, the President of the West Virginia Science Teachers Association, and has played a huge role in the strong science education programs present in West Virginia classrooms since her start as a teacher. NEED is lucky to have her as a friend, member of the Teacher Advisory Board, and training facilitator. We would not want to do it without her. Linda, thank you for so many years of support, humor, and expertise! We look forward to many more. Congratulations!

Wayne Yonkelowitz Once everyone at NEED was able to pronounce his name, the staff and teachers involved in NEED programs haven’t stopped asking for him and about him. Wayne Yonkelowitz came to NEED during a two-day teacher workshop in Charleston, West Virginia, over 20 years ago. He, like Linda Fonner, stood in the cold during that midnight fire alarm and the rest is history. Wayne has served as a member of the NEED Teacher Advisory Board, has been instrumental in the creation of curriculum for NEED and has provided his expertise to teachers all over the United States all these years.

In 2013, Wayne even ventured to Kuwait and Qatar to help teachers and students learn more about energy. He is an avid “nerd” and is always looking to learn more, teach more and help students. As a long-time wrestling coach, he has been able to coach new NEED teachers to become more engaged and active in energy education. As a middle school teacher, he understands how nutty and fun energy education can be. He leads NEED workshops (even workshops hosted on river barges in Pittsburgh), shares his knowledge with the NEED Board of Directors as the Teacher Representative on the Board, and never says no to a request for assistance from NEED. Wayne is a Presidential Math and Science Awardee and a Milken National Educator awardee as well. NEED is so much better because of him. Wayne, thank you for all you have done, and will do, for NEED. Congratulations!

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Paula Barnett Paula Barnett deserved this award many times over the years.

Having enjoyed an almost 25 year history with NEED, Paula has been one of NEED’s strongest supporters, greatest friends, and exceptional advisors in that time. Now at BP, Paula came to NEED while on the staff of the National Ocean Industries Association and saw great potential in NEED even then. As she moved from one organization to the next, Paula always took NEED with her – to the Independent Petroleum Association of America and then to BP. With BP, Paula and NEED have worked together in The Rocky Mountains, California, Texas and throughout BP’s footprint in the United States. She launched the BP A+ for Energy Program in California and then expanded it to over 10 states bringing NEED to new heights and thousands of new teachers to NEED. Paula is always available to help think over ideas, plan strategy for rolling out a new program in a new region, and to speak with NEED students interested in energy careers. As NEED’s Chairman, Paula took NEED from a program with a small staff and small footprint to an organization that was growing and still is. She is dedicated, committed to excellence,

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and willing to put in the time and effort necessary for success. In 2012, BP and NEED began work on the Safety Quest program. This Challenge Based Learning program is designed for 3th, 4th and 5th grade students in areas that have significant oil and gas development. Safety Quest leads teachers and students through videos and hands-on lessons that help students understand the energy around them and how to keep themselves and their peers safe around oil and gas equipment. The program, now in its final pilot stages, has students learning about safe behaviors in the classroom and in their daily lives. Safety Quest is a shining new effort in NEED’s vast body of work, and Paula’s leadership made it happen. She is friend and advisor to NEED staff and to NEED teachers all over the United States. Her commitment to education is unparalleled. NEED is lucky to have her among its best friends and strongest supporters. Paula, thank you for your years of service to NEED. We look forward to many more partnerships, plans and adventures. Congratulations!

Primary Level School of the Year Lipscomb Academy Nashville, TN Project Title: GREEN TEAM Project Advisor: Ginger Reasonover Lipscomb Academy “Green Team” members developed their own 3 R’s of learning. Taking a cue from the recycling slogan, “ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, students adopted “Relate, Repeat, Redeem” as their own motto.

During twice-monthly meetings, teachers related energy information including ten sources of energy, conservation and renewal methods. Through education, team members began to relate energy information to school, local, state and international communities. Relationships developed through ‘movie nights’, service days and teacher exchange programs.

In an effort to reuse resources, team members intentionally concentrated on waste prevention. Members encourage peers to repeat use of materials by selling lunch bags with washable containers, providing reusable bags for repeated grocery trips, and modeling composting so that ‘left-over’ food energy feeds garden plants. Green Team members redeem tons of recyclables! By taking a leadership role in collecting, sorting and managing all types of materials, members prevent loss of resources and redeem materials for funds to donate to worthy projects. Students led daily recycling

efforts, manned recycle booths at fall festival and Trunk or Treat, organized two collection drives, and assisted with America Recycles Day. LAES students are learning to: Relate personal knowledge, Repeat resource use, Redeem already-processed resources When youngsters lead by example, their potential energy impacts the world in BIG ways!

Elementary Level School of the Year West Carroll Elementary School Trezevant, TN Project Title: WHOO…Wants to learn about Energy? We Do! Project Advisor: Martha Vann Our year has been full of energy fun. We invited 15 new Explorers into our group this year. Those of us who were Energy Explorers last year have enjoyed sharing what we know with our new members and learning new things with them. We have made it our mission to try new activities this year. We began by exploring the NEED Science of Energy kit and expanding on the activities found in it. Riley attended the Youth Awards last year and he brought us some great new activities he learned there. We each chose a form of energy to research and made a presentation to our classmates. We worked hard to plan activities at school and in our community that would

emphasize energy awareness. This year we teamed with several school and community groups to help others. Above all, we want to be a positive influence in our school and communities.

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Junior Level School of the Year Bosque School Albuquerque, NM Project Title: Bosque Energy STARS: Energizing The School & Community Project Advisor: Barbara Lazar The Energy STARS reconvened as an extracurricular club to “grow” knowledge about energy conservation and awareness throughout our school and community. We met to explore, experiment, communicate, and have fun “doing” energy. We used Blueprint for Success and followed the “Steps” to organize our work. Our goal is to educate other students and our community about how to save energy and reduce our energy footprint. We learned through different activities, outreach, and demonstrations.

To spread awareness and develop leadership: - Conducted Energy Patrols & Awareness Announcements - Learned about sources through hands-on activities and kits like Science of Energy - Learned, then taught about sources: wind, H2, solar - Used the Energy on the Move – energy trailer and energy bike Our school’s awareness improved: - Announcements of facts, tips, challenges, and jokes about conservation and efficiency - Our energy club grew in student participation

- We are learning about and supporting new resource-saving at our school - Energy Week improved a culture of energy awareness with students and staff Our community benefited: - Making use of local resourceswith field trips - Participated in demonstrations and activities at Future Scientist Day at the NM Museum of Natural History and Science The influence of our club made a difference on how people think about energy. Through our activities and visibility in the community, we have helped the school and community to better understand our world, its natural resources, and energy as it impacts our lives today.

Senior Level School of the Year Scituate High School Scituate, RI Project Title: Scituate High School NEED Project Project Advisor: Shannon Donovan The SHS NEED Project has accomplished more than ever this year.

Through our yearly workshop, we taught other students about lighting, nuclear, wind, solar and building energy along with transportation fuels, fuel cells, electricity and magnetism. We hosted several events to promote local agriculture to reduce the use of transportation fuels, namely a contra dance where consumers could meet local farmers, a breakfast with foods that were produced locally, and “Community Night” where students educated others about the science of energy. To further our reach in raising awareness about how everyone is able to make a difference, the students in the NEED club have a Facebook page to promote the importance of one person taking action. We sold energy efficient

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light bulbs, hosted a plant sale and participate in a water festival, which educates elementary students. Our club has also made a short film about local agriculture and use of transportation fuels related to our food. Other activities the club has accomplished include visits to the local elementary schools to teach about local agriculture and transportation fuels, growing food to donate to the local food bank, and renovating the outdoor classroom, complete with a boardwalk.

SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE YEAR Westerville Energy Education Partnership Westerville, OH Project Title: TRANSFORMING Energy Education Project Advisor: Andy Boatright Teachers They are the champions of the Westerville Energy Education Partnership and they make it all happen.

Reaching Out Teachers and students reach out through a variety of programs, impacting their school, home and community.

Apply Everything that is done on behalf of the partnership is based on application of knowledge at school, home and in the community.

My home Impact is truly felt is at each student’s home. Wise energy leaders become wise energy consumers. Energy and money are saved.

New programs New programs have been developed and implemented through professional development with educators.

What is the Westerville Energy Education Partnership?

The partnership is a collaboration between the City of Westerville Electric Division, Westerville City Schools, and the Ohio Energy Project. The goal of the partnership is to impact students, teachers, schools, homes and the community through excellent training, materials and programs.

City of Westerville Electric Division (WED) is the funding partner for the program, hosts community events, provides home energy efficiency items and guest speakers.

Westerville City Schools (WCS) provide opportunities for professional development, facilities and of course the most important people in the partnership-teachers and students.

Ohio Energy Project (OEP), NEED’s state affiliate in Ohio, is involved in the partnership through professional development for educators and assistance in coordinating school events. OEP also provides access to NEED curriculum and materials.

Sustainability The Westerville Energy Education Partnership began with the city looking to increase sustainability through energy conservation.

Fun! Students involved in the program consistently share that being a leader and learning about energy is fun, an added benefit of handson learning and “Kids Teaching Kids.”

OEP Partnerships The partnership between Ohio Energy Project, City of Westerville Electric Division and Westerville City Schools has resulted in a sustained effort to offer exciting, innovative programs that promote leadership.

Responsibility At all levels, responsibility is the key to success. Students take responsibility for taking energy education home.

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Primary ROOKIE OF THE YEAR C. T. Douglas Elementary School Acton, MA Project Title: Douglas Energy Detectives Project Advisor: Thais Savage We decided that we wanted to help people understand that we really need to save energy in our schools and homes. Many people still don’t know about the planet getting warmer – but even though there’s still debate about that, we still need to save energy. It basically saves our breath – the amount of energy we use affects the amount of air. If you’re using too much energy, you’re hurting yourself. We made a goal to educate teachers and staff at our school about energy conservation.

We learned about LED light bulbs and we learned that they last a long time and they use less energy. We made posters, a video, and talked to classrooms about POWERING DOWN to conserve energy and save money. We wrote to our principal asking permission to reach out to our families and teach tips for saving energy at home.

We then submitted a picture and an energy saving tip to our school newsletter, the Douglas Digest.

We will continue our work as Douglas School Energy Detectives to teach teachers, staff and parents to be aware of energy uses and

ways to conserve. We would like to make a website as a way to reach more people. We would also like to spend some time writing a play about energy saving tips for a Readers Theater production. We hope to continue to bring awareness to teachers, students, and parents about the benefits of saving energy and our world.

ELEMENTARY ROOKIE OF THE YEAR New Castle Elementary School New Castle, KY Project Title: Project CFL: Changing the World One CFL at a Time Project Advisor: Becca Gilbert We are a first-year energy team from New Castle Elementary. Our team’s overall goal is to educate and inform the community on energy efficiency. The energy team members learned about the different ways to save energy in classrooms at school as well as in their homes. One committee put together a video that was sent to all the classes about tips on saving energy. Energy team members audit every classroom twice a week to keep track of energy savings occurring throughout our school. As a rookie energy team, students were fascinated about the efficiency of CFL light bulbs when compared to incandescent bulbs. We went into great detail learning about the facts of light and how much more efficient CFLs are. This led us to the idea of our primary goal: to fundraise CFL light bulbs to distribute to students at our culminating event, the energy carnival. Energy team members received donations from businesses,

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family members, neighbors, and friends to help us reach our goal of 1000 CFL light bulbs. At the energy carnival, attendees from New Castle Elementary got to leave with CFL bulbs to replace in their own homes. The energy team is excited to include other forms of energy into their repertoire of knowledge in the years to come!

JUNIOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR Paul P. Gates Elementary School Acton, MA Project Title: Gates Green Team - Energy Week!

Project Advisor: Rebecca Acheson As members of the Paul P. Gates Elementary School Green Team, we believe that saving energy can change the world. Even students like us can help make a great impact on the world’s environmental issues. In meetings on Monday mornings, we discuss the ways that as a school we can save energy. A main focus for us is saving energy by turning off lights and other appliances when they are not in use.

In addition to reminding students and teachers at school to turn off our lights and save energy, we would like parents and students to do the same at home. Saving energy is helping the school district save money, so you could do this at home too. Please remember to support our Green Team in our mission to save energy! By doing this, we can prevent negative results of climate change in order to preserve the world.

SENIOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR Pikeville High School Pikeville, KY Project Title: Plant it for the Planet Project Advisor: Traci Tackett Our Gifted Education class at Pikeville High school is composed of six students who are passionate about energy conservation and spreading community awareness. The NEED competition fueled our desire to educate and influence members of our community about energy. Collaboration with Sustainable Pike County (SPC), STLP, PHS A.P. Environmental Science, PHS PRIDE Club, Pikeville Independent Board of Education, and community experts will assist us in our education endeavors.

By building leadership, we are laying a foundation for success in future sustainability. Our class has taught monthly energy lessons to first graders and sponsored raised bed gardens at Pikeville Elementary. The STLP club and Gifted Education students become ambassador leaders in their classrooms. Through collaboration with the PHS PRIDE Club and APES class we are applying initiatives of a PRIDE grant. Within the grant, we will reduce energy cost in our district, implement seasonal gardens, and facilitate backyard gardening projects throughout the community.

Our project kept sprouting, much like our winter garden, leading to many alliances throughout the community. We never expected student involvement and excitement to bloom as it has. This enthusiasm has lead to various future plans for partners of all age groups. The NEED energy project is awesome!

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STATE AND REGIONAL PROGRAMS The NEED Project offers programs in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Mariana Islands as well as working around the globe with partners in the United Kingdom, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, and Thailand among others. Sponsors and partners provide support to deliver teacher training, classroom curriculum materials, hands-on kits, energy installations, energy field trips, residential energy efficiency programming, and school energy management programs to teachers and students. NEED works with local, state, and national energy companies, organizations, and agencies to provide energy education curriculum and training for classrooms across the United States and throughout the world.

NEED develops curriculum and training to meet its long-term goal of providing energy education resources to every appropriate classroom in the country. In some regions, there is little financial support for energy education training and classroom curriculum.

NEED is committed to being available to every educator who seeks to educate, innovate, and inspire students to learn more about energy.

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NEED believes in a local approach to energy education. NEED programs in Alaska provide different resources and experiences than those in the United States Virgin Islands. All programs are built on the foundation of balanced energy education curriculum correlated to local, state, and national standards, and comprehensive teacher training to prepare and support classroom teachers.

The culmination of many of these efforts is the NEED Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement. This program recognizes student leadership in energy education at the local, state, and national level. The student projects detailed in these pages showcase the NEED network’s commitment to teaching and learning about energy. For more information about the Youth Awards and NEED’s programs, visit www.NEED.org.

STATE AND REGIONAL CONTACTS In some areas, NEED has the resources available to have staff supporting state and local programs. In others, NEED programs are managed by the staff of State Energy Offices or other partners. Contacting NEED Headquarters in Virginia is always a good first step in learning more about energy programs in specific regions. Contact NEED at 800-875-5029 or at info@need.org.

CALIFORNIA Contact: Barry Scott Tel: (209) 482-5663 Email: bscott@need.org

COLORADO Contact: Vernon Kimball Tel: (970) 946-9343 Email: vkimball@need.org

INDIANA Contact: Caryn Turrel Tel: (317) 502-2552 Email: cturrel@need.org

KENTUCKY Contact: Karen Reagor Tel: (859) 578-0312 Email: kreagor@need.org

MAINE Contact: Peter Zack Tel: (207) 625-7833 Email: meep@psouth.net

MASSACHUSETTS (Cape Cod) Contact: Debbie Fitton Tel: (508) 375-6703 Email: dfitton@capelightcompact.org

MISSISSIPPI Mississippi Development Authority–Energy Division Contact: Lisa Campbell Tel: (601) 359-6600 Email: lcampbell@mississippi.org

NEW YORK Contact: Todd Rogers Tel: (315) 655-3507 Email: trogers@need.org

NORTH CAROLINA Contact: Amy Constant Tel: (919) 876-6317 Email: aconstant@need.org

OHIO Ohio Energy Project Contact: Deb Yerkes Tel: (614) 785-1717 Email: dyerkes@ohioenergy.org Web: www.ohioenergy.org

RHODE ISLAND Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources Contact: Barbara Cesaro Tel: (401) 574 9105 Email: Barbara.Cesaro@energy.ri.gov

TENNESSEE Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation Contact: Scott Slusher Tel:( 615)741-2994 Email: scott.slusher@tn.gov

TEXAS Contact: Melanie Harper Tel: (432) 553-7656 Email: mharper@need.org

VIRGIN ISLANDS Virgin Island Energy Office Contact: Leila Muller Tel: (340) 773-1080

WYOMING Contact: Vernon Kimball Tel: (970) 946-9343 Email: vkimball@need.org

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Nationwide Partnerships ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and NEED continue to provide over 1000 educators with curriculum and training opportunities. The workshop series presents a unique opportunity for classroom teachers (K-12) to learn about energy in a fun and exciting way! The workshops create awareness of today’s energy challenges and the importance of using energy wisely. ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 sponsor class-sets of Energy Infobooks and Science of Energy Kits for all participants. ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 support provides resources and training to teachers from Alaska to Florida and Massachusetts to California.

For more information visit: www.need.org/conocophillips and www.need.org/phillips66.

Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) NEED partners with the Society of Petroleum Engineers to bring energy education resources and teacher training to schools across the United States and in some international locations, too. In 2013-2014, NEED and SPE partnered to deliver the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Teacher Institute (sponsored by ExxonMobil) and the OTC Student STEM Experience, training over 100 educators and 200 students at the 2014 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. The teacher workshop allows educators to tour the exhibits – ranging from helicopters, oil and gas equipment, and drilling technologies to new computer programs used to search and produce oil and gas – and to participate in NEED and SPE’s Energy4Me lessons and activities. The student STEM workshop provides local high school students with an opportunity to participate in hands-on energy explorations, to tour the OTC exhibits and to talk about careers in the offshore energy industry with OTC exhibitors and tour guides.

In addition to the Offshore Technology Conference, SPE and NEED partnered for teacher and student workshops at the Canadian Unconventional Resources Conference in Calgary in November and again in June at the Heavy Oil Conference. NEED was fortunate to also work with SPE to deliver energy workshops for teachers and students in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Kuwait City, Kuwait; and Brisbane, Australia.

NEED and SPE work together to distribute the SPE Oil and Natural Gas resource book as well as the Energy4 Me lessons and activities created for schools by SPE. Visit www.energy4me.org for more information.

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U.S. Department of Energy – Wind for Schools Working in partnership with Wind Powering America at the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NEED hosts workshops and provides curriculum to schools selected to be Wind for Schools sites. Wind for Schools sites receive a small wind installation, data monitoring to broadcast electricity generation data, and hands-on kits, curriculum, and teacher training. Workshops were hosted in Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania in 2013-2014.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – Energy Industry Study Program NEED and EIA work together on the Energy Industry Study Program to engage EIA employees in learning about various sectors of the energy industry through timely discussions with energy professionals and field experiences to generating facilities, energy infrastructure facilities, and more. This program allows EIA employees to learn more about areas of energy with which they are less familiar, and allows NEED to showcase the great information and technologies of some of NEED’s best partners.

Shell NEED is honored to work with Shell throughout its areas of operations in the United States. As part of Shell’s exemplary social investment programs, NEED hosts teacher training workshops and provides classroom curriculum and kits. In 2013-2014, NEED and Shell hosted workshops in many areas of the country – providing training in Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, and Wyoming. The new NEED Science of Racing curriculum was designed for teachers at the Shell-sponsored Teacher Workshop hosted with the Shell Houston Grand Prix in October 2013 and June 2014 and NEED was fortunate to partner with Shell at the U.S. News STEM Conference in Washington, D.C. on the Connecting the Dots workshops for teachers. In June, NEED, Shell and the National Society of Black Engineers collaborated on a summer engineering camp for 3rd – 5th grade students in Houston. The week long camp engaged kids in learning about electricity generation and wind.

Alabama Aliceville High School National Senior Finalist Alabama Senior School of the Year Project Title: ASAP Global Energy III Project Advisor: Lucille Hatcher Aliceville High School Global Energy and Recycling Team focused our energy (no pun intended) on people that have never heard of energy and recycling and are not aware of the importance of energy and recycling. We used the people that we knew had heard of energy and recycling and the importance of both to get the word out, teach, and inform those who did not know about energy and recycling.

In August of 2013 AHS Global Energy and Recycling Team developed our energy project plans for the year and decided on nineteen pressing energy issues that we wanted to address.

We had several projects including hand delivering energy messages to parade goers at the annual Homecoming Parade, and we held our annual energy science fair in February. March and April kept us busy with our annual newspaper and magazine drive and a question and answer session with Westervelt Renewable Energy Company.

The most amazing highlight of the year was sending our messages on energy awareness via social media and seeing how it spread from 30,000 friends in 5 minutes to over 138,542 friends in 5 days. To date we have over 150,000 friends.

California Urbita Elementary School California Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Urbita Gets Serious About Recycling Project Advisor: Andrea Schindler The Earthsavers Get Serious About Recycling This year our Earthsavers decided to get serious about recycling.

First, we knew that we had to learn as much as we could about recycling. We used NEED’s “Talking Trash” booklet to learn as much as we could about recycling. We couldn’t believe how much we needed to learn.

Next, we created projects that would teach our local and school community all that we had learned. We practiced our presentations and presented to our local community at the

Sustainability Fair. We also demonstrated our knowledge of recycling and trash by presenting for our school community, including parents, students and staff, at our Earth Day Celebration.

Lastly, we came up with solutions for how to help our school to recycle correctly. We wrote a letter to our principal with our proposed solution. We presented to each of the classrooms at Urbita and explained why it was important to recycle. We also explained how to do it correctly. We are hoping that our school will finally get serious about recycling!

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PARTNERSHIP AND STATE SPOTLIGHTS Alaska NEED programming continues to excite teachers and students in Alaska with workshops provided by BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and the U.S. Department of Energy. Workshops hosted in Kenai, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Wasilla provided educators with hands-on kits and curriculum, briefings on energy careers, and Alaska’s energy picture. NEED participated in the Alaska Workforce Development Conference hosted to encourage discussion about Alaska’s energy workforce of the future.

California – Pacific Gas & Electric

and NRG Educators in Northern and Central California continue to enjoy the opportunities provided by the Pacific Gas & Electric Program. The PG&E Program, delivered in partnership with NEED, includes energy workshops for teachers, over $400,000 in school grants through the Bright Ideas Grant program, and the continued data and electricity generation from over 120 PG&E Solar Schools installations.

NEED is also honored to support the PG&E New Energy Academies in California. These New Energy Academies are California Partnership Academies as designated by the California Department of Education and provide workforce training for students interested in entering careers in the energy industry. PG&E supports the New Energy Academies with financial support, classroom equipment and resources, and this year we were pleased to provide $1,000 scholarships to the first graduating class at the five academies.

In 2011, GenOn joined NEED as a sponsor of teacher workshops in California. In 2012, GenOn and NRG merged and hosted four workshops for over 250 educators this year. NRG hosts its workshops at its power stations to help teachers experience electricity generation first hand.

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Encana – Colorado, Wyoming and

New Mexico In 2013-2014, NEED and Encana partnered to provide teacher workshops and curriculum materials to schools in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. Teachers have the opportunity to learn about energy and local energy resources while learning about Encana’s activities near them. A focus on transportation fuels and energy efficiency engages students and help them learn about the energy resources developed in their local communities.

Florida Florida schools participate in NEED workshops, receive grants and solar installations compliments of NEED’s partnership with FPL, and have the opportunity to learn about renewable energy and energy efficiency at Gulf Power sponsored Energy Expos and NEED workshops. Gulf Power provides NEED hands-on kits and curriculum to schools throughout the Gulf Power service area. In summer 2014, Gulf Power is sponsoring a summer energy camp for students.

California Gates Street Elementary School California Elementary Rookie of the Year Project Title: Gators Being Sun Wise Project Advisor: Jennifer Trochez We began Proyecto N.E.T.A. to teach others about solar energy.

“Proyecto” is “project” in Spanish; N.E.T.A. stands for “Niños Educando y Tomando Accion” or “Kids teaching others and taking action.” The word “neta” is Spanish slang for “being the best.” We wanted to teach others about what we learned this year in science using NEED curriculum and from our work with the University of Southern California’s (USC) Sun Smart program.

From our learning we decided that it was important to be sun wise. It is important to know how to be smart in protecting ourselves from the Sun’s radiation when outside, but we also

need to be wise about how the Sun is important to our lives here on Earth. Teaching in Spanish, we worked with the Dual Language Kindergarten classes to teach them about sunlight and how we can use the Sun’s energy to make our lives better on Earth. To teach them about the Sun’s energy, we made big books to read and talked to them about what we learned from using NEED’s solar curriculum.

We also decided on a few NEED solar activities to teach the kindergarteners about the Sun’s energy, so they too could be sun wise.

California Independence High School California Senior Finalist Project Title: Falcon Autistic Solar Team Project Advisor: Kevin Crosby The Kern High School District Special Education Program provides 8 special education classrooms on the Independence High School Campus, which serve 190 special-needs students.

We have started a solar club for our higher-functioning students with Autism called the Falcon Autistic Solar Team. The focus of our club is to travel to other schools around Kern County, CA and teach their students about how solar energy works. Our Falcon Autistic Solar Team members peer-tutor other classes on how a solar panel takes radiant energy from the sun and converts it into electricity. This project helps to mainstream our special-needs students with their peers, as well as provide outreach and awareness about green energy and alternative forms of energy. Our club hopes to provide an open forum, through our presentations, so that students around Bakersfield, California, will think about ways they can make a difference too.

Energy activities we have done include:

• Conducted solar demonstrations to educate other students.

• Took a field trip to a wind farm in Tehachapi, California, to study wind energy.

• Took a field trip to the Water Education Resource Center in Gorman, California, to learn about hydropower.

• Created an energy calendar to share conservation ideas.

• Filmed a public service announcement about wind energy in California.

• Hosted an ‘Energy Run’ for the students at Independence High School to motivate them to think about how our bodies use energy.

• Used a solar oven to cook vegetables and to bake bread and cookies.

• Flew a solar balloon.

• Studied how radiometers work.

• Built Lego cars and a Ferris wheel powered by a photovoltaic panel.

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California Redlands High School California Senior School of the Year Project Title: Tradition to Innovation Project Advisor: Laurel Nelson As a first year NEED club at Redlands High School, we knew our first project had to change the way our school looks at energy and the environment. Our school does not have a recycling program, so we are tackling the issue. We are working with a team at the University of Redlands to raise money to fund the program and to raise awareness on why our school desperately needs recycling. In order to share our cause with others, we attended the Redlands Sustainability Festival. We raised enough money to buy 22 recycle bins and 50 were donated! We are currently working on educating the school population about recycling and how it will reduce the school’s energy consumption.

To continue spreading awareness about energy, we have proposed that our school has an AP Environmental Science course. Students will learn about not only the importance of energy conservation and alternative fuel resources, but other environmental issues. Having been turned down, we have conducted a student petition to have the course.

Our club has many plans for the remainder of the year including a recycle drive, No Electricity Day, and to distribute energy pledges throughout our school and community. With these and future activities, we will continue to educate students, staff and those in our community.

California Independence High School/New Energy Academy California Senior Rookie of the Year Project Title: Teaching Teachers with Energy Project Advisor: Kim Woolf The Energy and Utility Career Academy prides itself on not only the education and experiences of the students, but on their community involvement, as well. This year’s community service project involved the junior-year academy students utilizing NEED curriculum in order to prepare and teach a lesson to second through eighth grade students at a nearby school that feeds to Independence High School. Juniors were responsible for choosing an energy source, ordering a NEED kit, learning the material, and organizing a lesson plan, complete with pre and post-tests, that collaborates both NEED and Common Core

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standards. Once complete, the juniors went and taught their class the lessons, most even doing lab demonstrations and engaging games included in the energy kits. After receiving feedback from many of the teachers and students, the groups were able to produce a general summation showing that nearly all of the lessons showed success. The next step was to share the experience. Under the direction of Barry Scott, State Coordinator, we will be hosting a teachers’ workshop to explain to the teachers how to teach the NEED curriculum and kit, which will then spread energy and sustainability awareness, ultimately bettering our community energy education.

Connecticut St. Thomas School Connecticut School of the Year Project Title: St. Thomas School NEED Project 2014 Project Advisor: Pauline Pelczar For our NEED project the middle school students, grades 6, 7, and 8 of St. Thomas School in Southington Connecticut, decided to teach the students in grades K to 5 and members of our community in Southington about energy and energy conservation.

We started by educating ourselves about energy and energy conservation by visiting the Smart Living Center in Orange, Connecticut, and doing the chapters in our science book on energy and energy conservation. The whole middle school took part in this field trip.

Next we did energy presentations to grades K to 5 using the Primary Energy Infobooks. We also acted out energy stories for grades K to 5.

To out reach to the community we made placemats and posters for the Friday evening dinners that had energy conservation tips on them and we made book marks that we put in the local libraries around the town of Southington that also had energy tips on them. We also were involved in other activities such as collecting ink cartridges, Capri sun bags, Frito Lay bags, and selling LED’s and CFL’s to recycle and conserve energy.

Florida A. K. Suter Elementary School National Elementary Finalist Florida Elementary Rookie of the Year Project Title: Suter Recycles Project Advisor: Cindy Bradley Wow! We have completed our first year of the NEED Project! We want to thank Mrs. Pate’s 4th grade class for getting us involved in the program. In the Fall, Mrs. Pate’s class came into our classroom to tell us about energy conservation and encourage us to get involved.

In December, we accompanied Mrs. Pate’s class to the Perdido Landfill. There we learned about recycling, what happens to waste, and the creative ways the landfill uses some of the items that are brought there. We were also able to visit Gulf Power Gas

to Energy Facility where power is made from methane gas.

In January and February, we made decorated bags for a local grocery store to use, encouraging people to recycle, and bookmarks for the public library. We even entered a “Recycled Art” contest! This week we are also turning in our can tops to the Ronald McDonald House.

All in all we had a fantastic time learning and teaching others about energy conservation this year. We would like to wish NEED a big “Thank You” for letting us get involved in this excellent program!

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Florida A. K. Suter Elementary School Florida Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Teaching Others About Energy All Year Long Project Advisor: Deborah Pate This has been an unusual year for our Suter Energy Savers. To make room for our brand new school, our classroom building, garden, compost, and rain barrel had to be demolished. We were very limited on space and outside activities, but we didn’t let that get us down! No sir……we just dug right in and used our NEED resources to get us going.

When school started last SUMMER we learned about energy conservation and the many kinds of alternative energy sources. We used our NEED materials and invited Ms. Bradley’s third grade class to join us in our energy activities this year.

In the FALL we took a field trip to the landfill. We also visited the Gulf Power Gas to Energy Facility where power is generated from methane gas. We decorated coffee sleeves for Starbucks and gave energy messages on our morning news show.

In the WINTER we learned about solar energy and made smores in our very own solar ovens. They were so gooey and delicious!

In the SPRING we made solar houses, recycled ink and toner cartridges, collected phone books and recycled plastic bags.

Wow, we have learned about energy “All Year Long”, thanks to NEED!

Florida Mariposa Elementary School Florida Elementary Finalist Project Title: Mariposa’s NEED Project Project Advisor: Adam Archer Mariposa Elementary School’s NEED group completed many different activities this year about energy. We learned Energy Chants about renewable and non-renewable energy sources that we could share and teach to the younger students here at our School. We were very excited this year to do our very first STEM activity with Ms. Tari Sexton, who taught us that the sun’s energy is useful, but it can also be damaging to some living creatures. We then were tasked with making a model of a new tank for a killer whale that would keep the temperature below 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In March, we held a Science Energy Night

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at school where we played energy games and shared about NEED with our community. We had a great turnout and everyone had fun!

Our NEED group focused on solar energy this year because we live close to the beach in Florida and it is always sunny here. Another reason for our focus is that Florida Power and Light has decided to build a gazebo with solar panels here on our school grounds. Our school project is to share with our community and students that solar power is renewable and we need to work to make this one of our main energy sources here in Florida.

Florida Morningside Elementary School Florida Elementary Finalist Project Title: Use Less, Save More Project Advisor: Mollie Mukhamedov “Use Less, Save More” is the message we want to share with our families and friends! By using less energy, we can save more money. We participated in the Home Energy Challenge sponsored by the Department of Energy and the National Science Teachers Association. We completed energy lessons and energy quests. We learned a lot about energy and shared that knowledge with our classmates and our families. Interviewing people born before 1950 was very interesting and gave us a

better idea of what life was like a long time ago. We have a better understanding of energy, where it comes from, how it is used and how we can save it. We hosted a solar day at our school that turned out to be very successful. After we completed a home energy audit, we graphed our results and wrote letters to our families explaining how we could save energy at home. “Use Less, Save More” is a great slogan that makes sense and helps our families save money.

Florida Ferry Pass Middle School Florida Junior School of the Year Project Title: Ferry Pass Middle School Energy Management Team Project Advisor: Carolyn Wuest The Energy Management Team at Ferry Pass Middle School continued its successful recycling program. The teachers, staff and cafeteria all participated in recycling paper, plastic, aluminum and tin cans. However, Escambia County and the privately owned recycling company have not been able to reach an agreement and all recycling was stopped in January! We hope the problem is solved by next school year.

We learned about the forms of energy and energy transformations by using the Science of Energy Kit. We even helped two new 7th grade teachers’ students as they did the experiments.

We had a “Science Night” where parents and students could come to school and participate in the Peak Oil Game (for a prize) and learn more about the difference between incandescent and CFL bulbs.

We continued using our watt-meters to monitor our school for ways to reduce our energy cost. If we cut the cost by 20%, we get money from the district.

We made a field trip to Gulf Power’s Methane Gas to Electricity Plant and the Perdido Landfill. We plan to use our pictures to make a slide show for the 7th grade teachers to use next year when they teach forms of energy and transformations.

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Florida Lincoln Park Academy Florida Junior Rookie of the Year Project Title: The Energy Dudes Project Advisor: MarLou Jennings Our NEED group, Cody Jennings and Alex Oravec, have learned about different types of energy by experimenting with various fun and interesting projects during the school year, and sharing this knowledge with elementary school students. This summary is going to allow you to see what we did and how we did it!

Our very first project in NEED was a very interesting and new topic to us. It was a little car, powered by a fuel cell that converts chemical energy into electrical energy by splitting water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen. After experimenting with the car, we took it over to the Kindergarten class we were working with. We

explained to the kids about how the car works, and discussed this unique energy process that may someday power all of our cars and trucks.

The next project we did was to use solar energy and solar ovens to cook nachos. We predicted how long it would take to melt the cheese and checked the ovens periodically. We finally brought the kids outside and had them eat the nachos while we explained how the UV rays cooked them. We also built a solar house and demonstrated it to the Kindergartners.

Everything we did was an awesome and educational experience!

Georgia Hilsman Middle School National Junior Finalist Georgia School of the Year Project Title: Protect The Planet Project Advisor: Audrey Hughes

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The Hilsman Science & Energy Team’s key message is to Protect the Planet because resources on our planet are limited and have to be shared by everyone. Early in the year the team established a spin-off team, known as the Green Team, so that more students could help Protect the Planet through direct action at school. Between the Science & Energy Team and Green Team, over 100 students are involved in efforts to Protect the Planet.

The team learned about energy and resource conservation throughout the year using NEED resources, taking field trips, consulting with experts, and hosting guest speakers at our school. Major efforts to educate others kicked off in October with Energy Awareness Month and promotion of the team’s Trash Hunger Campaign, in which we sell trash to benefit UNICEF and the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. The team continued that momentum with America Recycles Day. The team’s message was shared at Star 94’s Jingle Jam in December.

The team hosted a Conservation Fair in January with over 10 partners helping to spread the team’s message. During the month of February the team spent time developing lessons for NEED/Energy Education Week. During NEED Week in March, the team hosted an assembly for the 6th grade with a professional performance and one of our own. The team taught lessons to other students and brought energy and conservation educators to science classes. Team member created films with a conservation message were shown all over Athens. Finally in April, the Atlanta Falcons and team members celebrated Hilsman’s Rise Up & Recycle Challenge win.

At the conclusion of the year, more people were taking efforts to P rotect the Planet. The team acquired 310 Energy Star Pledges, raised over $400 to Trash Hunger with 22 businesses and schools joining the campaign, educated hundreds of other students, reached thousands of community members directly, and Georgians all around the state heard about our message through media coverage.

Hawaii La Pietra - Hawaii School for Girls Hawaii Junior Finalist Project Title: Light and Energy Survey for La Pietra Classrooms Project Advisor: Jean Young This year was our first-time entry and part of our Grade 6 Environmental Science Energy Unit. Students conducted a light audit of classrooms and work spaces at our school using light meters to collect light data in classrooms and offices and compared their findings with IES Standards. Students interviewed occupants to determine how energy was being used and to see if there were suggestions or concerns that occupants might have. Students wrote reports which included a schematic of the rooms, their data, analysis, recommendations and covers decorated with energy themes and messages of thanks to the teachers.

Students also hosted an Energy Expo event for the school during Earth Week. Student teams designed games which would raise awareness about energy. In the spirit of Earth Day, students reused materials and used found-objects in the construction of their games.

Energy Bucks were awarded to participants who cashed their Bucks in at our Prize Booth for a variety of fun prizes. Many students and teachers attended, played and enjoyed the games. Sixth graders agreed that this event was a great way for them and the student body to learn about energy.

Hawaii Moanalua Middle School National Junior Rookie Finalist Hawaii Junior School of the Year Project Title: MMS Energy Team Project Advisor: Krista Keiser Our team, the LightSavers, is made up of eleven 8th grade students from Moanalua Middle School in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Our overall goal was to create awareness of energy sources and energy conservation throughout our campus. We did three main projects to help us reach our goal. The first project we did included teaching 7th and 8th grade classes. We helped spread education throughout both grade levels. The second project we did was run labs during our recess. We invited students from all over campus to come in and participate. The last project we did was a mix of PSAs and posters. We played the PSAs on the morning bulletin for the whole campus. We also played a trivia

game on the morning bulletin and gave prizes to the first student in each grade level to answer the questions correctly. We concluded our project with a survey of students and found that 80% of those surveyed have changed their views on the importance of energy conservation. This project was a huge hit among the students at our school and we believe that we were successful in reaching our goals.

Overall, we are very proud of what we have accomplished throughout our school. We hope that you enjoy looking through our portfolio.

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Hawaii La Pietra - Hawaii School for Girls Hawaii Senior School of the Year Project Title: PV Supported Aquaponics For Education Project Advisor: Aaron Sekulich The purpose of this project was for students to design and implement an aquaponics structure, retrofitting an existing aquaponics unit acquired from another school and combining supplemental power with the use of photovoltaic energy. Two teams opted to write a proposal for the project. Each team consisted of two students. One team focused on the mechanical design of the aquaponics that is currently being implemented on a tiered hillside at La Pietra School. They researched cost and feasibility of the project, with an emphasis on running a system with minimal power usage. The other team focused on cost and feasibility of using a photovoltaic solar panel and battery system

to supplement power usage for the system and minimize demand on the school’s use of the electrical grid. The project proposals were submitted at the end of Term 3 of the 2013-14 school year (4 total terms). The mechanical system is currently being built and will be initially completed before the end of the school year. Photovoltaic components will be ordered and added at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. Additionally, a water pump system currently being employed will be switched with a more efficient air lift pump system next school year.

Hawaii – Hawaii Energy In 2013-2014, NEED programming with Hawaii Energy grew to include even more teachers and workshop offerings. As the education partner for Hawaii Energy’s extensive energy outreach, training and efficiency efforts, NEED delivers energy workshops for teachers, supports student training efforts, and works to make the best education programming available to Hawaii teachers and students. Workshops for teachers are hosted on Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai and Molokai. NEED curriculum and training is fundamental to Hawaii Energy’s education efforts. We are proud to be a partner in this transformational program.

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Illinois Hoover Math and Science Academy National Elementary Finalist Illinois Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Lights, Camera, Take Action! S.H.A.R.E is On the Air! Project Advisor: Karen White We are ready for our close-up! We are taking our lessons to the airwaves this year. We still are the Dream Team playing in the Big Leagues, but times are changing and broadcasting is the way to go. So the S.H.A.R.E. Club took a shot and made our goal – to motivate and energize all of HMSA by adopting all classes from K to 6 and showing their major league skills on HMSA’s new morning news show broadcast. And we hit it out of the park!

Of course, we make learning and sharing about energy exciting for the fans. We have Energy Games galore. Energy Source Scavenger Hunt, Trash Talk, Smarter Than a S.H.A.R.E. Kid, Energy Sudoku, and Disappearing Garbage are live at Hoover. A “Power Play of Plastic” bags litter Hoover, too. Really! All can join in and play and earn Energy Coupons for the S.H.A.R.E. Store. Earth Week is our World Series: Make-a-Choice Monday, Take-a-Hike Tuesday, No-Waste Wednesday, Think-Hard Thursday (Energy Bingo LIVE! over our new broadcast system), and Freshen-up

Friday. Community members could pitch in and learn about energy by visiting the displays, playing the S.H.A.R.E. games, and purchasing CFLs from “Lights 4 Learning” at the HMSA Science Fair and “Celebrate Learning” events.

The S.H.A.R.E. Kids needed a strong team to reach the Majors. The fifth graders were part of that championship energy team. All the players signed up for Think! Energy. After receiving their home conservation kit, they got to work on sharing their expertise. The energized 5th graders even visited the amazing geothermal site at Sherman Hospital. The Science of Energy stations and energy activities kept them in tip-top shape for the whole season. These energy rookies were ready to step up to the plate and help the S.H.A.R.E. Kids’ mission – educate and energize the Hoover Community! No Academy Awards, yet, but they definitely are the stars to watch. Stay tuned to Channel ENR at HMSA!

Illinois Frank C. Whiteley Elementary School Illinois Junior School of the Year Project Title: Save Energy, Save the World Project Advisor: Kathleen Cochrane When one person saves energy it changes a life, but when everybody saves, they can change the world. Saving energy in NEED is making a difference in our community. Our whole school contributed to help us achieve our goal of teaching about saving energy. This year our school collected cans, made a scavenger hunt, painted energy saving tips on light panels, and held an eco-fashion show. We also repurposed K-cups into mini flower pots and wrote newspaper articles.

We reached our entire school and schools throughout the district. Our cans group put a message on the morning

announcements, teaching our whole school why cans should be recycled. One group had little children hunt for cards about renewable and nonrenewable sources. When visitors come to Whiteley, they look up! Why? One group painted energy saving tips on the light. By strutting our stuff we taught kids about energy.

Our school watched the eco-fashion show with designs made from recycled items and reclaimed fabric, which made comfy and stylish outfits. Our newspaper group sent editorials about saving energy to newspapers, and to the district website. By teaching people about saving energy we are creating a better today and a better tomorrow.

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Kentucky Chance School Kentucky Elementary School of the Year Project Title: The Power of Energy Literacy and Conservation Project Advisor: Sarah Cummins The Chance School Energy Team had 3 goals: to educate their school about energy; to reduce energy consumption; and to share energy education and conservation tips in the community.

The Monitoring and Mentoring kit was used to measure energy use and the EnergyWorks kit to learn all aspects of energy.

Numerous projects were implemented to reduce energy consumption: energy education and conservation presentations were given; signs were made and posted reminding people to turn off lights/electronics; school-wide composting was started; notices were left for classrooms reminding them to conserve

energy; an energy fair was held at the public library; holiday and spring break shut-downs were conducted; the school became “idlefree” with help from KAIRE (Kentuckiana Air Education); a garden was planted to grow food for students; and research was conducted on using compost as a heat source for food-producing plants.

Our school has made great strides in learning about and conserving energy. In March we had an astounding 20% energy savings on electricity compared to last year. The Energy Team has significantly affected the school and behavior has changed to conserve energy.

New Castle Elementary School

Kentucky

NATIONAL ELEMENTARY LEVEL ROOKIE of THE YEAR KENTUCKY ELEMENTARY ROOKIE OF THE YEAR SEE PAGE 28

Kentucky Tichenor Middle School Kentucky Junior School of the Year Project Title: Real-World Energy Efficiency Project Advisor: Jennifer Davis Tichenor Energy Club is a student organization of about twenty active members who are guided by Mrs. Jennifer Davis. Our collective group does many community based activities. We have spent time teaching community members on energy conservation. In October of 2013 we held a Family Energy Night in our own library. We had 100 or so guests who came around and learned about energy conservation. We did the same thing again in March of 2014 at a local library in Burlington, Kentucky.

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In late April last year we visited our own four district elementary schools and taught our local 4th graders about energy transformation. We will be returning to do the same on April 30th of this year. We also worked with our schools’ energy manager to learn about how infiltration has caused energy loss in our school building, which he will present to our local school board.

Kentucky West End School Kentucky Junior Rookie of the Year Project Title: West Energizers Energy Saving Tips Project Advisor: Matthew Howell West End School is a boarding school in Louisville where twenty boys, ages 11-14, live Sunday night through Friday afternoon.

Our first step in the NEED energy project was to come up with a team name: The West Energizers. We discovered when and where we waste the most energy in our class and dormitory rooms. We presented examples of saving energy to our teachers, other students at our school, and our Board of Directors. We are cutting down on electricity usage and saving money for our school by turning off lights, A/C and heat, and fans. We close windows so heat does not escape the room

during winter. We unplugged devices we aren’t using because of “phantom load”. We use the sunlight instead of the ceiling lights.

We also helped our community. We passed out flyers to our neighborhood with tips on how to save energy. To encourage people to save energy, we attached raffle tickets to the flyers. We asked people to enter the ticket number on our Facebook page and tell how they saved energy in their home. The ticket was for our concession stand. We also made a YouTube video showing ways to save energy.

Pikeville High School

Kentucky

NATIONAL SENIOR LEVEL ROOKIE of THE YEAR KENTUCKY SENIOR LEVEL SCHOOL OF THE YEAR SEE PAGE 29

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STATE SPOTLIGHT – KENTUCKY

Teacher workshops, Student Energy Team Trainings, Energy Expos and Energy Family Nights were held across Kentucky in 2013-14, as students shared what they learned about energy with their families and school communities. This year Kentucky NEED Coordinators trained teachers at sixteen workshops across the Commonwealth.

Program highlights include the following:

LG&E/KU Partnership Four Kentucky NEED Regional Coordinators worked with K-8 schools in 70 school districts across the Commonwealth during the 2013-14 school year as part of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E/KU) Children’s Energy Education Program. Charged with establishing embedded energy education programs in K-8 schools receiving their electricity from either LG&E or KU utilities, the coordinators worked full-time to achieve this goal. They provided teachers with professional development opportunities, made classroom presentations and assisted schools in establishing and/or maintaining their student energy teams. Eight one-day NEED workshops were held for the teachers, introducing them to NEED’s energy education resources and providing them with hands-on kits for their students. Due to their efforts, we now have reached 191 schools, have 72 educators with embedded NEED programs in their classroom and 47 sustained student energy teams across the state.

Duke Partnership Schools in Northern Kentucky were offered two community-wide energy education opportunities through our Duke Energy sponsorship. Student groups were invited to apply for mini-grants to plan and facilitate energy education projects for their families and community members. Several Energy Fairs were held across Northern Kentucky. Students were invited to participate in the distribution of residential energy efficiency kits to households that are Duke electric customers. In addition, Duke also sponsored one NEED Energy Workshop for Educators for the region.

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Kentucky Power/AEP CFL Project Working with KP/AEP partners, Kentucky NEED planned and facilitated three professional development opportunities for seventh grade teachers in the service territory in support of the utilities’ CFL project. NEED curriculum and resources that support energy efficiency lessons were provided.

High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop The 2013 Kentucky NEED High Performance Sustainable School Buildings Workshop, held in partnership with the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence (DEDI), continues to impact energy efficient school design in Kentucky.

During workshop sessions, school administrators, architects and engineers heard from design experts and administrators about a holistic, systems approach to school design and renovation. A program highlight was a presentation by Kenton County high school students on their research of energy efficient design opportunities in their district.

Kentucky Green & Healthy Schools Program Twenty-three portfolios were submitted in this year’s Youth Awards Program. Seven portfolios were first time entries. On April 24, a statewide awards luncheon was held in Frankfort in partnership with the Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools program. Students spent the morning sharing their accomplishments and meeting with program supporters. In June, forty-three students from seven Kentucky teams traveled to Washington, D.C. for the National Youth Awards Celebration. At the celebration, two Kentucky portfolios were awarded national honors as the most outstanding rookie projects.

NEED National Training Conference As Kentucky prepares to implement new science standards, twenty-one Kentucky teachers attended the National Training Conference and worked with Kentucky NEED team members to plan how to best incorporate NEED resources into their curriculum.

Kentucky Energy in Education Collaboration

Sponsors: Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence (DEDI); Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities (LG&E/KU); Duke Energy; Kentucky Power/AEP

Partners: Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition; Kentucky Environmental Education Council/Green & Healthy Schools Program; Kentucky School Energy Managers Project (SEMP)

During the ARRA funded years, Kentucky developed a successful collaboration of several organizations working to address energy issues in K-12 schools. When the funding ended, three of these organizations chose to continue the collaboration. Kentucky NEED, Kentucky Green & Healthy Schools Program and the School Energy Manager Project are carrying on their partnership to work in support of teachers and students who want to learn about and address energy and environmental issues in their schools.

Student Energy Team from Hinsdale Elementary School – Kenton County

Kentucky NEED Students at state awards luncheon 47

Louisiana Saint Margaret Catholic School National Junior Finalist Louisiana Junior School of the Year Project Title: Stewards of the Earth Project Advisor: Judith Reeves Energy is everywhere, even in our garbage. It is our mission as a Steward of the Earth to help educate our school, community, and families on the ill effects of garbage in landfills and the huge benefits of recycling.

We first worked with Mayor Roach and Team Green to identify items recycled in our community and parish, and then we identified the items recycled at our school. Working with Mayor Roach and Team Green, we created flyers to inform our community of recyclable goods. We posted signs throughout our school and produced a simple PowerPoint presentation to educate the students at our school on the importance of

Massachusetts

recycling, terracycling, and water conservation. We also helped educate our community (5,000-10,000 people) by handing out flyers and holding “trash talk” events at local festivals and school events -Family and Youth Counseling Festival, CalcaChew Family Festival, and PTC nights.

Our evaluative records include: records of our recyclable goods, energy fair invitation to the Director of Recycling, competitions - Green Schools, eCybermission, Adopt-A-Road, citywide Phonebook drive, and NEED scrapbook.

We hope that our awareness program will lead the city to curbside recycling to save landfills and the fuel for trucking our garbage.

C. T. Douglas Elementary School NATIONAL Primary ROOKIE of THE YEAR Massachusetts Primary SCHOOL OF THE YEAR SEE PAGE 28

Massachusetts Eastham Elementary School Massachusetts Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Eastham’s Energy Project Advisor: Maggie Brown

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We started out energy club this year with kids from last year’s energy group. There are 18 of us.

We wanted to continue teaching people about energy. So, all of us went to NEED.org and studied up on the types of energy, renewable and non-renewable energy and how energy is transferred. Then we got a call from Deb Fitton, at Cape Light Compact, and she wanted us to set up our stations at Martha’s Vineyard Living Local Festival. It was a blast! Then a couple of us

stayed after school and taught 1st to 3rd graders about solar energy.

We made solar cars and houses. Just recently we spent 2 days at Wixon Intermediate School putting on an energy fair for all 480 4th and 5th graders and their teachers. It was exhausting but we got great feedback. They even want us to come back next year and teach them about energy so they can give their own energy fair. We are ready to go!

Massachusetts Luther Conant Elementary School Massachusetts Elementary Rookie of the Year Project Title: Reducing Energy Use At School Project Advisor: Betty Ann Vitale Have you ever used a Kill-a-Watt Meter to measure how many kilowatts of energy a machine uses when turned off, on, or in use? That’s exactly what the Winter Green Team at Luther Conant School has been doing over the past few weeks. We made shocking discoveries and learned so much about how to make our school more energy efficient. We were able to make recommendations and suggestions about turning off certain machines in the evenings or when they are not in use. We also tried to decrease our school’s carbon footprint by reducing the amount of electricity being used by our school’s lights. For our “turn off the lights” campaign, we made colorful light switch plate covers that go around the light plates and kindly remind faculty and students to turn off the lights when they leave a room. We took initiative to politely ask our teachers if we can

turn off the lights if nobody is going to be in the classroom for a while. The bright colors and designs on the light plate covers draw the attention of the younger students as well as the teachers’ eyes.

The work we do on the Green Team is a benefit to our entire school.

At the start of every Green Team meeting the student members collect all of the recycling throughout the school and bring it to the recycling collection bins. We even made a video to show at All School Meeting and to post on the school website to share with families. In the video it shows how people can help the school reduce energy consumption and how recycling benefits the Earth – the link to watch it is here: http://youtu.be/jVXbIDnWDDE We really hope to make a difference at our school and for our whole planet.

Massachusetts Harwich Middle School National Junior Finalist Massachusetts Junior School of the Year Project Title: Learning About Energy and Taking Action for Our Environment Project Advisor: Melinda Forist Dedicated students of Harwich Middle School have spent this year educating their peers and the general public about energy concerns. Forty members of Harwich Cares meet weekly to discuss how to raise awareness and teach valuable lessons about energy, including ways to reduce energy consumption.

We began our school year with a Community Clean Up. Harwich Cares then invited The Alliance for Climate Education to present an inspirational presentation about influencing climate change.

We held a fundraiser to sell energy efficient CFL bulbs and even gave 200 away. The nearly $3,000 raised funded visits to Massachusetts Maritime Academy to learn about how

renewable energy is being used, and to Covanta SEMASS to learn how household trash becomes energy. We also created educational displays for Cambridge Science Festival’s Science on the Street. Our recycling efforts in our school have greatly reduced our trash output.

Members met with our school’s kitchen staff to discuss Styrofoam alternatives. Most recently, Harwich Cares presented two day-long Energy Carnivals for the students in Harwich and Chatham Elementary Schools. We proudly educate ourselves and others about energy in new and interesting ways, so people will want to reduce their energy consumption and create a healthier world!

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Massachusetts

Paul P. Gates Elementary School NATIONAL Junior ROOKIE of THE YEAR Massachusetts Junior Rookie OF THE YEAR SEE PAGE 28

Massachusetts Acton-Boxborough Regional High School Massachusetts Senior School of the Year Project Title: Power Down Project Project Advisor: Kate Crosby Since the Resource Force began in the fall of 2010, it has grown tremendously. For the past two years, we have focused our work on energy conservation. Through a multitude of projects, we have raised awareness about and fostered change regarding energy consumption and other sustainability issues among school staff, faculty, fellow students, and our town and regional community, planting the seeds for a more environmentally aware society.

The work we have done encompasses three main areas: electricity conservation, recycling, and community awareness.

Electricity conservation projects (called Power Down) include the faculty Picnic Project, reminding everyone to power down before weekends and vacations, and our Light Saver project.

We have expanded our work with recycling and composting by helping to establish a trash sorting station in a local elementary school’s cafeteria, which was modeled off our own trash sorting

station at ABRHS. Community awareness projects include a “Power Down” video we submitted to the NSTAR Challenge program, as well as outreach events such as exhibiting at a bi-annual STEM fair, Science Family Night, and the Youth Climate Action Network conference. For more information about our energy conservation work, we invite you to visit our school district website at http://ab.mec.edu/departments/facilities/energy-efficiency.shtml.

We were incredibly proud when our high school recently received an EPA ENERGY STAR, and also when our district was recently recognized by the US Department of Education with a “first-ever” District Sustainability Award through their Green Ribbon Schools program (one of just 14 districts to be recognized in the United States). We appreciate NSTAR and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources for supporting energy conservation and efficiency at our school!

PARTNERSHIP AND STATE SPOTLIGHTS Massachusetts – Cape Light Compact, NSTAR, Columbia Gas Massachusetts, National Grid, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and Western Massachusetts Electric

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NEED programs are strong in Massachusetts, thanks to the support of the Cape Light Compact, NSTAR, Columbia Gas Massachusetts, National Grid, Western Massachusetts Electric, and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. The Compact loans NEED kits and curriculum to classrooms, provides teacher training, and hosts many community education events throughout the year. NSTAR, Columbia Gas Massachusetts, National Grid and Western Massachusetts Electric support provides teacher training and curriculum related to energy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy to schools across Massachusetts.

Michigan – Michigan Oil and Gas Producers Education Foundation Educators in Michigan attend workshops, learn from energy speakers from the Michigan Oil and Gas Producers Education Foundation (MOGPEF), and receive energy curriculum and hands-on kits, compliments of a variety of Michigan sponsors.

Local energy organizations provide funds to the MOGPEF who supports NEED workshops around the state.

New York With the support of National Fuel, NEED provides workshops on energy efficiency and climate change and incorporates the Saving Energy at Home and School Kit and Home Energy Efficiency Kit into all classroom programs. Students receive Home Energy Efficiency Kits to take home and use with their families to help reduce energy use at home and reduce energy bills too.

Massachusetts Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Massachusetts Senior Rookie of the Year Project Title: Students Understand The Importance of Energy in Engineering Project Advisor: Natalie Munn Ten Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students commuted over to the Tisbury Elementary School to help teach third graders about engineering. These students took time out of their busy schedules to pre-plan each activity every week. The first device that the third graders had to make were door alarms.

These alarms taught the kids how energy is transferred through a circuit. The kids modified this by adding another battery because they realized if there’s more volts present, then the alarm would be louder. The second activity was an indoor sling shot. This activity dealt with the importance of potential energy. The kids modified the slingshot by allowing more potential energy to be stored therefore allowing the ball to fly across the room much farther. Another week we had

them build self-drawing marker bots. These bots relied on batteries wired to small motors, and the kids gained more experience with how electricity is transferred. The kids also built balloon cars. These balloon cars focused mainly on potential energy, when the balloon was being blown up it was storing potential energy and when the air was released, it changed into kinetic energy. The last activity the high school students taught to the third graders was creating a light source. The kids used LED lights and learned the importance of positives and negatives in the transfer of electrons/electricity through a circuit. Overall the kids had a lot of fun engineering and modifying each challenge and project. The kids also learned a lot more about energy and how circuitry, potential, and kinetic energy all work in the design process.

Michigan John F. Kennedy Elementary School Michigan Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Kennedy Elementary Energy Explorers (KE3) Project Advisor: Constance Josvai The Kennedy Elementary Energy Explorers (KE3), started our science club after the Holidays. With all of the snow days in January, our science club has been busy these past few months.

First, a meeting was held to determine if students were interested in forming a science club. We had a large turnout as we filled a classroom with fourth and fifth grade students.

At the first meeting, we decided the name of our science club, introduced the energy sources, decided on energy topics, and created goals using N.E.E.D. materials. We discovered a goal most of our group was in charge of since the beginning of the school year was maintaining the school recycling programs and

the community recycling trailer. It was cold working in the recycling trailer this past winter. Other goals we made were tied in with our classroom science units: populations and ecosystems, understanding potential and kinetic energy, understanding solar, electrical, and chemical energies. N.E.E.D.’s Science of Energy Kit was a great resource to help us with our learning. We were able to teach other students in our classrooms as we explored these units. Our final two goals taught us to be Energy Conservationists by participating in DTE’s and Consumers THINK Energy Program, and N.E.E.D.’s Building Buddies.

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NEW MEXICO

Bosque School NATIONAL Junior LEVEL SCHOOL OF THE YEAR NEW MEXICO SCHOOL OF THE YEAR SEE PAGE 26

North Carolina Forestville Road Elementary School North Carolina Elementary Finalist Project Title: STAR (Students Teaching About Resources) Project Advisor: Renee Roddick Your mission, if you choose to accept, is: to have Students Teaching About Resources. Are you ready to accept the challenge? Yes. Mission objectives: recycle, teach about energy, and to conserve energy globally. The S.T.A.R. Kids are ready to accept the mission to save the Forestville Falcons nest from clutter and waste. We will teach them about nonrenewable and renewable resources. We will tell them of new ways to conserve energy and the hope for a cleaner tomorrow. Good luck S.T.A.R. Kids – have fun and teach on! (This message will self- destruct in 5 minutes.) We have had a busy year meeting our mission’s objectives. From the beginning of the year, the S.T.A.R. Kids helped teachers, students, and our community to stay green. We did this by doing plays for the younger students and having science night for the whole school. At science night, we showed off our energy experiments, showing different forms of energy with our experiments and played several energy games. We displayed our 10 fact posters and our “Why we save energy” display board

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that contains many energy tips and facts. The S.T.A.R. Kids gave energy tips and facts on the morning announcements and PNCS Energy even came and put on a play about natural gas, to show our students how natural gas works and why it is important to conserve.

We participated in the bike rodeo to show how “pedal power” can be an alternative cleaner way of transportation while learning about bike safety. Another mission objective was to recycle. Becky from FEED the BIN came and helped us learn more about recycling and we even got to go to the recycling center to see how they sorted cardboard, paper, and bottles. We learned about what we can recycle, how to recycle in our school, and learned about where our recycled items go to the local recycling center. We recycle weekly.

Our global mission was to educate the citizens of Knightdale about our dry detention basin at our new Knightdale Station Park. We learned what a dry detention basin was, the different parts of the basin, how it is used to help prevent erosion and flooding. We also participated in our International festival in which we created posters of energy around the world. Participating in the Christmas parade allowed us to pass out our energy tip bookmarks in English and Spanish to the entire crowd. We also made big posters of the tips so everyone can see and save energy. Mission completed. We accomplished all of our mission objectives. We have enjoyed working with the school and community teaching them how to conserve our resources by recycling, reducing, reusing, and staying green.

North Carolina Shadybrook Elementary School National Elementary Rookie Finalist North Carolina Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Eagle Eyes for Energy WISE Project Advisor: RCheryl Clifton This year at Shadybrook we had Energy Wise. At first we did a secret patrol to collect the original data before we started telling them to save energy. Then we made posters to go into a contest and then we voted. Mariam did an introduction of Energy Wise to the staff. We started to do regular patrols with thank you notes or reminder notes. Everybody on the team sent an email to the staff once in the year to say how they did that month. We were in the High Point Parade and did an Awards Day Chant.

Showdown at Resource Ranch came and did a program for the school. Alex, Davis, Dani, and Lennon did a table at Curriculum Night that demonstrated the difference between incandescent and CFL light bulbs. Lastly, we did a collection of data and an analysis of the school’s use of energy. I hope this is going to help the school a lot and we get stuff to help with our learning.

North Carolina Northern Guilford Middle School North Carolina Junior School of the Year Project Title: Expecting Excellence Every Day and Saving Energy Along the Way Project Advisor: Tameka Jordan This year at Northern Middle School our Energy WISE team grew, therefore, we felt the need to expand our energy awareness efforts beyond the walls of our school and into the community.

We had announcements made at school to inform the students/ staff about the amount of denim that ends up in the landfill and organized a denim drive. The denim that was collected was dropped off at the local Animal Rescue and Foster Program. The Animal Rescue and Foster Program will use the denim at their next denim drive to raise money to help the animals at the shelter. We were able to reduce the amount of denim in the landfill because it will be reused and animals will be cared for

with the profits. This year we wanted to make a bigger impact regarding carpooling and we had Carpool Tuesdays once a month and encouraged the parents to carpool. We counted the number of cars in the carpool line each Carpool Tuesday and kept the parents and students updated on the progress. We stressed that carpooling saves the environment, time, and money. Last year, we attended Energy Day at one of our local universities, North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University, and this year we made it a priority to have a booth set up at Energy Day to help raise energy awareness.

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North Carolina Northern Guilford High School North Carolina Senior Finalist Project Title: #NRG4LIFE Project Advisor: Donya Grant & Lauren Muirhead While this isn’t the first year our school has participated in the NEED competition, this is the first year our programs have been in charge of leading the energy initiative. As teachers who oversee vocational and life skills training, we realized what a unique opportunity we had to educate our students and school about energy conservation as it relates to REAL LIFE and thus-- #NRG4LIFE was born! Over the course of this year, our classes combined efforts to carry out activities using both NEED. org curriculum resources as well as our own lesson plans.

Additionally, our students implemented a school-wide energy conservation program that provided each classroom with a

shut-down checklist to ensure that our school reduced energy consumption while the building was unoccupied. Regular patrols were conducted to monitor energy use and determine the impact our energy initiative had on the school. Our students also spearheaded the school’s first TerraCycle program in which we collected writing utensils to be recycled into sustainable green products. To wrap up our campaign, students reflected on what we had done not only to learn about energy conservation but also what we did to make our school community more aware of energy saving strategies.

North Carolina Southern Guilford High School North Carolina Senior School of the Year Project Title: Energy Storm Project Advisor: Mark Case The NEED team was unique this year due to integration of NEED in cross curricular activities and lessons. The EC department led many of the programs around school. Here are quotes from some of the students as to why they like to do the program.

Brandon said: “If we recycle, we keep the school clean.”

Taylor said: “I like to help save energy. So I go around and make sure they cut off the lights.”

Michelle said: “I like being in charge of something.”

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Laquan said: “We make some money from what we recycle to take our trips.”

Dante, Danille, Deondre, and Wesley are on one crew and said: “We find lots of things we can turn into art and use again when we pick up the recycled stuff.”

KJ, the team leader, probably said it best: “I look forward to coming to school. I get to help all kinds of classes with this stuff.”

Ohio Robert Frost Elementary School Ohio Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Flip The Switch!

Project Advisor: Bethany Morris Early in the school year, our class did a science unit about energy. We learned that most energy comes from fossil fuels, which are non-renewable. When fossil fuels run out, they are gone forever. We wanted to figure out a way to save energy in our community and thought we would start at our school.

First, we went around the school and saw if classrooms had the lights on without anyone being in the room. We found out that there were classrooms that were leaving the lights on when no one was in there. Classrooms that left the lights on received an

energy ticket taped on their door. We thought switch-plate covers would remind everyone to turn off the lights when they leave. Each person in our class designed a switch-plate cover. We installed the covers and gave a short speech about the project to each classroom at our school. The rest of the covers went in hallways, bathrooms and other common areas. After we did this, we started to give out energy tickets again to see if our project helped. In April, we presented our project at the Westerville City Council meeting to help spread the word to the community.

Ohio Heritage Middle School Ohio Junior School of the Year Project Title: Bright Idea Project Advisor: Debbie Pellington The energy leaders at Heritage Middle School chose the theme “The Bright Idea” to highlight their energy activities throughout this year. The energy leaders brainstormed the “bright idea” behind every energy activity they completed this year. They chose to highlight their bright idea for each activity in their scrapbook pages on the bottom right hand corner of the page in a CFL light bulb.

The energy leaders worked to design and complete energy education activities that involved their own personal growth and energy education, as well as the energy education of those

at school, home and the surrounding community. Some of the activities completed this year included energy fairs at their school and local elementary schools, hosting energy stations at community events and meet the teacher night at school, inviting guest speakers who are experts on an energy topic to share information, hosting energy games day at school, as well as conducting school and home energy audits to increase energy awareness and conservation.

Through a number of school displays and announcements, contests, and feature stories in the school and local newspaper, the energy leaders maximized their energy education efforts all year.

Westerville Energy Education Partnership

Ohio

National Special Project of the Year Ohio Special Project of the YEAR SEE PAGE 27

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Ohio Oakwood High School National Senior Finalist Ohio Senior School of the Year Project Title: Blue & Green Go Green Project Advisor: Heidi Steinbrink The mission of the Oakwood Energy Team is to deepen the knowledge and understanding of the citizens in the community about today’s problems in the energy sector.

Throughout our activities around the Oakwood schools and community, we emphasize the importance of educating our society to create a positive outcome in Oakwood and in the world. We are becoming and modeling how to become an agent of change.

PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT SAfety Quest – BP In 2012, NEED and BP began a partnership to create the Safety Quest program. Safety Quest is designed to educate students and teachers about oil and gas equipment in their community and to provide valuable information that keeps students safe around that equipment. Curiosity about oil and gas equipment can sometimes lead students to take part in unsafe behavior. Safety Quest seeks to educate, inform, and deter unsafe behavior around oil and gas equipment. In 2014, NEED hosted its first Safety Quest workshops in Texas and plans more for the near future! As the pilot of the curriculum and video resources wraps up, the program will be ready for its premier in school year 2014-2015.

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The Goals of The Team: Energizing Our Peers In The Classroom Defining Who We Are Impacting Our School Changing Our Community

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STATE SPOTLIGHT The Ohio Energy Project (OEP) The Ohio Energy Project (OEP) continues to deliver innovative methods to provide energy education and leadership opportunities to Ohio’s students and teachers. Youth Energy Summits, Energy Workshops, and Energy Fairs were held across the state to educate teachers and students about energy-related issues. OEP’s Energy Efficiency Education Program empowered students and teachers to conserve energy at home using energy conservation kits, resulting in a significant energy savings across the state. This program has been extremely successful and we are planning to ship 52,000 energy conservation kits throughout Ohio in the upcoming year. The funding partners for this program are American Electric Power OH, Columbia Gas, Dayton Power and Light, Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives and Vectren.

The Careers in Energy and Environment program has been extremely successful reaching 300 high school student leaders from across the state as it aligns the state’s best and brightest high school students with energy-related technology and research currently being

performed across Ohio. Similar to summers past, the number one professional development opportunity for OEP continues to be the Energy Sources Tour. Teachers board a bus to visit a variety of energy sites across Ohio that demonstrate various energy sources and production, their applications, and other science concepts. The Energy Bike continues to be built by middle school girls from Ohio school districts during the summer AEGIS (Activating and Energizing Girls in Science) program.

Major Sponsors: American Electric Power; AEP Ohio; Dayton Power & Light; Vectren; Ohio Development Service Agency/Community Services; American Municipal Power and Member Communities; Westerville Electric Division; Worthington City Schools; Honda of America; NiSource/Columbia Gas; Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives; Marathon Ashland Petroleum; 3M; Ohio Farm Bureau Federation; Energy Optimizers; USA; Niagara Conservation Corporation; Office of Energy and the Environment at The Ohio State University.

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STATE SPOTLIGHTS Rhode Island

Mississippi

For a small state, Rhode Island is BIG in energy education.

Hosting over eight workshops a year for teachers and students, NEED’s programming in Rhode Island covers the science of energy, energy sources, wind and solar energy, and home and school building energy efficiency. NEED participates in the Rhode Island conference of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership, and provides resources to school districts working to reduce energy consumption in school buildings. With the support of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, National Grid, hundreds of teachers and students are reached each year.

Working with the Mississippi Development Authority, NEED provided teacher training and classroom curriculum to teachers from across state. Teachers regularly report that workshops with the MDA team and NEED are among the most exciting things they get to do each year. Evaluations show that the workshops are highly rated as the best professional development they attend.

Tennessee The Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) sponsors Tennessee’s K-12 Energy Education Program. The program, entitled Tennessee Energy Education Network (TEEN), provides training and resources to classroom teachers and other educators, incorporating NEED as a cornerstone resource for comprehensive, curriculum based energy education in schools and for student-led community outreach activities promoting energy efficiency and conservation.

TEEN continues to promote participation in energy education by classroom teachers and is offering three Energy Camps for 120 teachers during the summer of 2014. These camps provide training and resources to conduct comprehensive energy education programs in their schools.

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Rhode Island Park View Middle School Rhode Island Overall School of the Year Project Title: PV NEED Cougars Project Advisor: Joanne Spaziano The PV NEED Cougars have accomplished eight goals this year.

We started out with the Hot Dog roast on August 21, 2013, to recruit new members from the incoming seventh graders. We did community service at Open House on September 11th by collecting Stop and Shop hang tag information for our school as well as passing out energy conservation contracts and talking about switching to energy efficient lighting at our table in the foyer. We formed a new group and began meetings on a weekly basis. We worked weekly on learning various activities such as chants, the Science of Energy, the Monitoring and Mentoring kit,

as well as making the stations for our Energy Expo, which was held March 12th. We conducted the RI Middle School Teacher/Student workshop at Park View with 65 students and teacher attendees!

Finally we wrapped up the year by working Saturday and Sunday at the RI Energy Expo at the RI Convention Center in Providence with the Office of Energy Resources. Seven students were present each day to present games, experiments, and to hand out stickers, glow sticks, and energy saving advice to the hundreds of people who attended. We look forward to 2014-2015.

Rhode Island Dr. Earl F. Calcutt Middle School Rhode Island Junior School of the Year Project Title: Calcutt Cares: Improving Our Global Footprint Project Advisor: Stephanie Racine This year’s Calcutt Energy Leaders worked very hard to “Improve Our Global Footprint” locally and in our community through educational and creative ways. We spent the majority of our school year collecting, cleaning, and recycling juice bags into reusable products. Through our efforts, we saved and recycled over 10,000 juice bags that would have otherwise gone to the landfill and raised almost $500 towards improving our school garden!

Through the School/Community Energy Night, parents, peers and community members and leaders had a chance to learn

about the different types of energy and how we can all save energy and money by making small changes in our lives. At this event, we raffled off a bicycle in an effort to demonstrate that we can choose to ride a bike to school rather than having our parents drive us, we can save our environment from harmful carbon emissions.

We are proud to have worked hard this year learning, teaching, and becoming more involved in ways to “Improve Our Global Footprint.”

We leave this year knowing that, even if Central Falls is the smallest city, in the smallest state in the country, changes big or small can make a difference.

Scituate High School

Rhode Island

National Senior Level School of the year Rhode Island Senior Level School of the Year SEE PAGE 26

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Lipscomb Academy

Tennessee

National Primary Level School of the year Tennessee Primary School of the Year SEE PAGE 25

West Carroll Elementary School

Tennessee

National Elementary Level School of the year Tennessee Elementary School of the Year SEE PAGE 25

Tennessee Michie Elementary School National Elementary Finalist Tennessee Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Reduce, Reuse, Recyle, Rethink Project Advisor: Debra Steen This year we have completed a lot of energy activities. Starting with the flow of energy and taking it all the way to the chemical formulas for photosynthesis and respiration. We have made models of cells, dissected owl pellets and worms. We have completed the elementary energy infobook and a lot of energy activities. We have looked at the different forms of energy and discussed if they were renewable or non-renewable resources.

We have completed a lot of energy activities and made models of some of these resources. We have shared this information with others in our school.

We were excited to work again with Mrs. Kennedy with our recycling project. We have debated the pros and cons of recycling. We have made recycling containers, and helped decorate a tree with recycled decorations. We entered a recycling competition with Retrac America, Keep America Beautiful in the community division. We educated our parents and community about the importance of recycling. We kicked off our competion with a recycling pep rally (go green). In the end we were successful. With the help of our community, we placed third in the country in the Retrac Amercia, Keep America Beautiful Recyling Bowl Competition Community Division.

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Tennessee Franklin County High School National Senior Finalist Tennessee Senior School of the Year Project Title: We Speak for the Trees Project Advisor: Everette Smith This was a very busy year for us! The Energy Audit we completed on our high school helped save energy/money.

Our energy education efforts resulted in a Good Sports Always Recycle grant, presented in front of 100,000 people at a University of Tennessee home game. That helped us start a plastic bottle/paper recycling program. With the abundance of natural gas, we looked hard at CNG for cars. Our Ride for Reading project saved trees/energy, and provided rural elementary school students with free books. A neat thing we did was see how wind energy is used to design aircraft. At Arnold

Air Force Base we saw how giant fans produce enough wind to test small scale planes faster than the speed of sound. We converted more used cooking oil to make biodiesel for city vehicles. A solar farm tour at Duck River Electrical Membership Cooperation was an added bonus. Everything we learned was put into our energy expos and spread throughout Middle Tennessee, and helped mentor middle school students.

We really teamed well with our local TV, radio and paper to spread energy education. The school board was very impressed with our presentation on what we learned at the 2013 Youth Awards.

Tennessee Ivy Academy Tennessee Senior Rookie of the Year Project Title: Live Green Project Project Advisor: Holly Slater The Live Green Project is a project to help our school conserve energy, save money, and educate our students and community about energy conservation. Last year, March was our highest energy usage month of the year, so this year our staff and students are working together to come up with ways to not only conserve energy in the school but also help educate the community about energy conservation. We have come up with numerous ways to save energy and raise energy awareness throughout the school that we will be implementing during the month of March.

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Texas Harmony School of Excellence National Elementary Rookie Finalist Texas Elementary Rookie of the Year Project Title: HSE Green Club Project Advisor: Bhavna Rawal The Harmony School of Excellence (HSE) Green Club program strives to educate the students, staff and local community about fossil fuels, renewable energy, pollution and the adverse impact of human energy consumption on climate. Our goal is to raise community awareness of the importance of energy conser vation. Students conducted experiments to gain a deeper understanding and presented to the local community in the Houston energy day event!

Here are some of the other activities that were conducted as a part of this program: • Restarted the school paper recycling program. Started the plastic recycling program by building plastic recycling trash-cans out of plastic water bottles collected from our cafeteria.

• NEED curriculum activities and energy 4 me activities in the classroom starting from defining energy, matching energy sources, renewable and nonrenewable sources, to plotting graphs and presenting in class as well as in school to community.

• Participated in local conservation efforts such as: beach cleaning, tree planting, river water testing and water conservation.

• Made models of wind turbine, solar cars, energy efficient house, photovoltaic cells, fuel cell cars, etc., to get a greater understanding of inner workings of machines and how they produce electricity.

Texas Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts Texas Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Energy and the Arts Project Advisor: Debbi Herrera Goal One: First we wanted to see what the teachers at our school thought about energy. Each student got assigned a teacher to survey. Everyone wrote letters to their teachers, finding a date to survey them. It was interesting to see what the teachers thought.

Goal Two: Next we wanted to find out what the students knew about energy. 4th grade passed out energy surveys to all science classes. When we received them back, we graded them and based most of our posters and skits on the answers.

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Goal Three: We wanted to find a unique way to make learning about energy fun. The groups made up songs and the lyrics were based on energy. After each song we learned something new. Later we made games and played them with the 3rd graders. The games were based on our energy topics.

Goal Four: Staying with their topics, each group was creating another energy poster and skit. It’s always pleasant to learn something new about energy. All 4th grade thinks it is very exciting.

We are the Energy Artists and we teach everyone about energy.

Utah MorNingside Elementary School Utah Junior School of the Year Project Title: Saving Power and Reducing Kilowatts (S.P.A.R.K.) Project Advisor: Patti White We can create a more sustainable, cleaner and safer world by making wiser energy choices. – Robert Alan Silverstein Our team S.P.A.R.K. (Saving Power and Reducing Kilowatts) is dedicated in making planet Earth a cleaner and better place to live. We have done many energy projects including; supporting alternative fueled vehicles (AFV) race car drivers at the Bonneville Salt Flats, designing our own AFV, experiencing Pretzel Power, learning and debating about the Keystone Pipeline, going to an Anti-Idling Conference, having Rocket Day, learning about the James Webb Telescope’s infrared energy, hosting an Energy Fair at our school, and doing Science of

Energy experiments. We participated in our science fair, some of our projects were; Fallout, Solar Water Heater, Kelvin Electrostatic Generator, and Rocket Nozzle Design. We are learning about the countries in the European Union. In May, we will have a Model European Union debate on the 20-20-20 policy involving nuclear energy and make our solar ovens. A cool thing that our class received was the Granite Education’s Innovative Cash for Classroom Grant. We purchased light sensors for our hallway and got a computer program written so that all classrooms can see their energy use. This year has been very educational, and extremely fun!

Virginia Thaxton Elementary School Virginia Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Thaxton NEED Team Project Advisor: Viola Henry We had an exciting year at Thaxton Elementary. Working together, our school and community increased their awareness of various conservation ideas and recycling increased.

Our projects included recycling ink cartridges and cell phones with “Cartridges for Kids” and recycling aluminum cans. Money collected from these projects was used to pay for supplies to complete our school and community projects. Also, we recycled about 1,000 pounds of mixed paper each month.

One of the ways we gave back to the community was “Ronald McDonald House Can Tab Program”. We collected and donated

can tabs, so that the money raised would provide a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill children and adults in the Roanoke area hospitals.

This was our 14th year participating in the Virginia Tech/AECP Energy Expo (a 2-day demonstration of conservation ideas and projects). At our Energy Fair, all of the students and teachers had a lot of fun. Dominion Chrysler Dodge Jeep brought a “Gem Car” to our school’s Energy Fair. The teachers enjoyed driving the electric car around the school.

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West Virginia Short Line School West Virginia Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Get On Board With The Engineer Energy Kids!

Project Advisor: Leslie Lively All aboard! The Short Line Engineer Energy Kids used Energy Contracts, Games and Icebreakers, Energy Fact Sheets, Energy Stories and More, Infobooks, Wonders of Magnets, Building Buddies, Handle on Science kit to make posters, teach others, and complete hands-on activities. With this knowledge of the types of energy we knew that we could do things that would have long term effects on our community.

We wrote letters to get businesses involved in our project. NTB donated to our project. Dominion Gas sent speakers to our class. WDTV-5 did a phone interview with Mr. Lively on energy conservation. Three local radio stations took our radio PSA’s and played them on the air to over 50,000 listeners.

We made posters of the different types of energy after doing research and displayed them for our school to see. We also visited different grades to share our posters and knowledge. Restaurant placemats with energy tips were also made.

To help our school save energy and to teach students and staff to do their part we made reminder signs to hang in the classrooms and near sinks. We thought that this little reminder would help them turn off lights when leaving the room and turn off the water when they are finished. Our school is actively participating in a recycling program.

Our adventure is just beginning! We plan on continuing with fun and exciting projects that will lead to long term changes that are better for all of us.

Wisconsin Park Community Charter School Wisconsin Elementary School of the Year Project Title: Give the World What it NEEDS Project Advisor: Kris Serwe Park Community Charter School students learned about energy and how to save it. The whole school watched “The Energy Guys” put on a play sponsored by Kaukauna Utilities about energy savings. We learned how to save electricity and how electricity is made. Using energy star items and turning the water heater down to 120 degrees F will save money. Using renewable resources is better than using nonrenewable resources because we will run out of nonrenewable resources at some point.

At each grade level students did energy saving actions to help save energy in their homes, school and community.

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Kindergarteners collected recyclables, first graders promoted use of reusable containers at lunch, second graders promoted water conservation, third grade promoted conservation of electricity and fourth grade’s focus was energy production and conservation.

All students in our school wrote their energy saving ideas on Piggly Wiggly grocery bags. These bags will be used by shoppers at our local store to spread the word about saving energy. Students learned a lot about energy. If you think about it, there are many ways you can change the world one step at a time.

Open Your Eyes! Be Energy Wise!

STATE SPOTLIGHT Pennsylvania – Greater Philadelphia and PECO The PECO Energizing Education Program (PEEP) is “project-based,” combining a five-week classroom program with a school energy audit completed by students, a field trip to a PECO power station, a community project, and an exciting opportunity for students to present their energy projects at a year-end community event.

Designed and implemented by PECO, The Franklin Institute, and NEED, the program is supported by a grant from PECO and the Exelon Foundation.

PEEP completed its sixth successful year during the 2013-2014 school-year. Following classroom explorations and field trips to PECO generation facilities, students put their knowledge to practical use by completing an energy efficiency/conservation community project for their local community. With over 30 schools participating, more and more teachers, students, and families are engaged in the program’s active energy and environmental education and outreach. Over 12,000 students benefitted from the program – which now includes afterschool programs from United Way agencies in the region including: The Salvation Army, Girls, Inc, Boys and Girls Clubs, Congreso, and Overbrook Environmental Education Center.

Academically, the program has changed how some school districts integrate energy into the curriculum. Since the very first year of the program, the West Chester School District has involved over 900 students each year, by integrating program resources into the career and technology classroom. NEED is honored to be part of the PECO program and to work with The Franklin Institute, United Way, and the great PEEP teachers and students.

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NEED NATIONAL SPONSORS and PARTNERS American Electric Power

Energy Education for Michigan

American Wind Energy Association

Energy Training Solutions

Arizona Public Service

First Roswell Company

Arizona Science Center

FJ Management. Inc.

Arkansas Energy Office

Foundation for Environmental Education

Armstrong Energy Corporation

FPL

Association of Desk & Derrick Clubs

The Franklin Institute

Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania

Frontier Associates

Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Government of Thailand–Energy Ministry

Robert L. Bayless, Producer, LLC

Green Power EMC

BP

Guam Energy Office

Blue Grass Energy

Guilford County Schools – North Carolina

Boulder Valley School District

Gulf Power

Brady Trane

Gerald Harrington, Geologist

Cape Light Compact–Massachusetts

Harvard Petroleum

L.J. and Wilma Carr

Hawaii Energy

Chevron

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Chevron Energy Solutions

Idaho National Laboratory

Columbia Gas of Massachusetts

Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation

ComEd

Independent Petroleum Association of America

ConEdison Solutions

Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico

ConocoPhillips

Indiana Michigan Power – An AEP Company

Constellation

Interstate Renewable Energy Council

Daniel Math and Science Center

Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition

David Petroleum Corporation

Kentucky Department of Education

Denver Public Schools

Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence

Desk and Derrick of Roswell, NM

Kentucky Power – An AEP Company

Dominion

Kentucky River Properties LLC

DonorsChoose

Kentucky Utilities Company

Duke Energy

Kinder Morgan

East Kentucky Power

Leidos

Eastern Kentucky University

Linn County Rural Electric Cooperative

Elba Liquifaction Company

Llano Land and Exploration

El Paso Corporation

Louisiana State University Cooperative Extension

E.M.G. Oil Properties

Louisville Gas and Electric Company

Encana

Maine Energy Education Project

Encana Cares Foundation

Maine Public Service Company

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Marianas Islands Energy Office

Sandia National Laboratory

Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources

Saudi Aramco

Michigan Oil and Gas Producers Education Foundation

Science Museum of Virginia

Miller Energy

C.T. Seaver Trust

Mississippi Development Authority–Energy Division

Shell

Mojave Environmental Education Consortium

Shell Chemicals

Mojave Unified School District

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Montana Energy Education Council

Society of Petroleum Engineers – Middle East, North Africa and

NASA

South Asia

National Association of State Energy Officials

David Sorenson

National Fuel

Southern Company

National Grid

Southern LNG

National Hydropower Association

Space Sciences University–Laboratory of the University of California

National Ocean Industries Association

Berkeley

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Tennessee Department of Economic and Community

Nebraska Public Power District

Development–Energy Division

New Mexico Oil Corporation

Tioga Energy

New Mexico Landman’s Association

Toyota

NRG Energy, Inc.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission

NSTAR

TXU Energy

OCI Enterprises

United States Energy Association

Offshore Energy Center

United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey

Offshore Technology Conference

University of Nevada–Las Vegas, NV

Ohio Energy Project

University of Tennessee

Oxnard School District

University of Texas - Austin

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

University of Texas - Tyler

Paxton Resources

U.S. Department of Energy

PECO

U.S. Department of Energy–Hydrogen Program

Pecos Valley Energy Committee

U.S. Department of Energy–Office of Energy Efficiency and

Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association

Renewable Energy

Phillips 66

U.S. Department of Energy–Office of Fossil Energy

PNM

U.S. Department of Energy–Wind for Schools

Read & Stevens, Inc.

U.S. Department of the Interior–Bureau of Land Management

Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources

U.S. Energy Information Administration

River Parishes Community College

West Bay Exploration

RiverQuest

Western Massachusetts Electric Company

Robert Armstrong

W. Plack Carr Company

Roswell Geological Society

Yates Petroleum Corporation

67

THE NEED PROJECT P.O. Box 10101 Manassas, VA 20108 Tel: 1-800-875-5029 Fax:1-800-847-1820 Email: info@NEED.org Web: www.NEED.org Facebook.com/NEEDProject Twitter.com/NEED_Project