HARRISBURG – The Department of Environmental Protection has announced the creation of the Keystone Energy Education Program (KEEP) to teach and track energy efficiency in school buildings and homes.
KEEP is a series of free workshops, geared to middle school building teams, which includes three teachers of grades 5, 6 or 7, an administrator and a building maintenance manager. Workshop participants will learn about and explore energy issues, including fundamentals and impacts, electricity generation, transportation fuels, careers, energy conservation, student teams and school building energy benchmarking through presentations, tours and hands-on activities.
“Energy education is critically important for children, teachers and families. The KEEP program will enable participants to learn the importance of conserving our natural resources; the economics of energy sources and technologies; and the value of clean energy for our environment, while enabling the school district to operate the school building more economically to save taxpayer dollars on utility costs,” DEP’s Director of Environmental Education Jack Farster said.
Each team will have the opportunity to integrate high level, standards-based energy education into their formal curriculum. This could include lesson plans, curricular modules and ongoing benchmarking through EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager, resulting in energy efficiency assessments leading to improvements that reduce energy consumption.
The workshops are based on Pennsylvania’s Academic Standards and Assessment Anchors for Environment and Ecology, Science and Technology and Engineering Education. Participating teachers will receive background information, standards-based curricular materials and energy conservation material kits.
There will be 12 day-long workshops held throughout the state during the 2013-2014 school year, beginning in early October. Six school teams will attend each workshop, resulting in 72 schools participating.
The workshops will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Participating teachers will be eligible for 6.5 Act 48 credit hours.
Space is limited, so registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
For more information or registration materials, contact the KEEP Coordinator Susan Gove at 412-431-1010 or email atsgove@gove.org.