Many energy workshops for MA teachers at envir. conference March 4
Submitted by Shawn
2009-02-20 13:52:04
The annual conference of the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society includes several opportunities for professional development related to energy. The conference will be held at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA March 4, 2009.
Workshops:
An Island Classroom: Looking for the Power of Place on the Boston Harbor Islands. This workshop includes ways the Harbor Islands partnership teaches environmental stewardship through demonstration. Their stewardship includes a strong dose of renewable energy.
Analyze Environmental Data for On-Site Renewables. Workshop participants will learn to analyze environmental data to determine whether their school/site would be good for a particular renewable energy technology. They will get free resources including access to gigabytes of wind and solar data, software for visualization, and more. Hopefully, some of the participants will come with experience in using their own site data in the classroom.
Connections: How Things Are Made and the Energy it Takes to Make Them! Children are a big part of our consumer population. It is my hope that by educating children from a young age how to be environmentally aware consumers, they will think about the materials and the energy it takes to make their food and toys. Through books, games, crafts and photographed field trips, this workshop will share a ten-week program used to educate 6-10 year olds about this concept.
Energy Thinking. Participants will identify current energy resources used and energy resources available in Massachusetts for transportation, electricity, heat, and hot water. We will evaluate whether an energy resource is renewable or not and what impact its use might have on the environment, human health, and society. Through discussion and hands-on activities we will explore applications of renewable energies. Accompanying curricular unit Energy Thinking for Massachusetts supports MA State Standards for grades 5-8 in Science, Technology/Engineering and Ecological Health and is available for sale.
Making Transportation More Sustainable. Over the past few months while teaching in western Massachusetts SCA Mass Parks AmeriCorps members have addressed the theme of more efficient transportation in many of their classes. This session will provide examples of lessons they taught over that period. As a result of higher gas prices transportation has become not only an environmental issue, but an economic issue clearly affecting the students we teach and their families. Attendees will participate in portions of said lessons as well as have access to lesson plans relating to this topic.
For complete information about the conference, please visit the MEES website:
http://www.massmees.org/