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Teachers and Students

Text Books If you're looking for PA energy data, here is a firsthand look at the 2018 Update of Pennsylvania’s Energy Star® Certified Schools . For more information there is a variety of websites which we have listed on our Energy Data website.

If you want to help your school save energy – whether you're a student or a teacher – you can find a variety of programs you can engage in. They include:

The Pennsylvania Green and Healthy Schools Partnership – for which DEP serves on the Advisory Council – has some resources, but they also promote the international Eco-Schools program coordinated in the USA by the National Wildlife Federation. This program includes a pathway for energy and resources for students and teachers to take action.

The Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance offers a list of resources for energy savings for schools.

Alliance to Save Energy, in addition to working on energy efficiency efforts around energy policy, they offer two programs – one for teachers and facilities staff through PowerSave Schools and one focused on students at Energy Hog. These programs have a lot of information and resources (some free and some at cost and some that have awards including grants).

The Energy Star program offers activity books for kids, but for upper middle and high school students, and schools with Eco Teams, the Portfolio Manager energy benchmarking tool is a great way to partner with the school's facilities staff.

If you're a teacher, and if you need some financial assistance to implement your energy project or curriculum, check out the DEP Environmental Education grant program and then look to these sites for energy curriculum resources (many FREE):

The National Energy Education Development Project (www.NEED.org) has an extensive resource catalogue and planning guide they publish annually. You can search curriculum by grade, topic and subject area. They cover mining, transportation fuels, home audits, renewables, energy use, topics such as how water and waste related to energy and more. They provide both free and at cost materials.

The US Green Building Council's Center for Green Schools offers their Learning Lab full of curated materials for teachers; searching for energy yields a number of great resources.

The US Department of Energy has an energy literacy program and links to lots of additional STEM resources.

PBS Learning Media has over 1000 resources related to energy on their site. You need to create a profile, but the resources are free. We suggest you search for "Pennsylvania" and "Energy" select the grade and there you'll find videos and more ranging from the history of PA energy through biomass in PA.

The PA Earth Science Teachers Association- their resources are few at this time, but they are currently populating their links.

The National Energy Foundation has worked with First Energy and UGI and provided workshops and materials for teachers in their areas in the past through Think! Energy. There are also resources available to all educators, but most of these are for a cost.

If you're a student, check out these kid-friendly resources in addition to the Eco-Schools and the Energy Hog programs above:

NASA offers some great information about energy, and general environmental and climate change topics for kids.

The Energy Information Administration offers a great kids section in addition to all their detailed information about national and Pennsylvania energy.