Energy Efficiency Education Starts Early

Posted by Shuyu Feng

The topic of energy efficiency is becoming popular in our society, along with a lot of practices on sustainability. The problems of global warming, transportation, food and water are all very important to us and everyone around the world. Since our environment is getting weaker day-by-day, it is essential that we teach our future generation on energy efficiency as early as possible.

One of the ways to inform our children the most effectively is through school programs. As children are learning with each other in a large group, it will be easier for them to accept the material and practice within the school area. Having programs such as energy saving in school will not only provide opportunity for children to learn, it also benefits schools in reducing energy costs.

One of the successful examples of that is The K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP), it is created by a school in Wisconsin, the main goal of the program is to inform teachers about the focus on energy programs in school and also encourage children to participate in energy saving activities. The course mainly has its focus on evaluating the energy use in school buildings throughout Wisconsin, and also providing guidelines for teachers to use school buildings as a tool for the education. The course provides teachers and students with education on energy systems and energy flows within a school building. Everybody is able to learn from the program on how the school buildings consume its energy. The program has also help school districts to learn about each school’s energy resources and effectively develop future plan of actions on energy.

Children are able to learn a lot from the school program as some of the parents commented according to the KEEP website. A lot of children are more familiar with habits of turning lights when leaving rooms, turning off the water when washing hands in soap, and also creating more activities outside of home. Parents are very happy and surprised of how much children learned from these programs.

These great programs should not only happen in Wisconsin. Every state has its available resources for schools to begin creating energy efficiency education for our children. I believe by incorporating these programs to our schools, our future use of energy with the next generation will be reduced substantially. The current situation with our environment will then be improved with help from our children. Trust them, they can really make a difference.

For more information about KEEP, please visit

http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/wcee/keep/index.htm