by Brianna Crandall — February 16, 2011—Green Education Foundation’s (GEF) Green Energy Challenge has begun, with nearly 300,000 students participating nationwide. GEF is mobilizing thousands of K-12 schools to participate from across the country in what it calls the largest school-based energy efficiency campaign to date, coupling environmental lessons with hands-on audits.
The Green Energy Challenge program, sponsored by National Grid, calls on students to audit their classrooms, schools and homes to find energy leaks and correct them, in an effort to reduce utility costs and help the environment. Participating schools will research past bills and implement comprehensive yet simple changes in an effort to reduce associated costs during the school year.
Audit checklists and energy experiments for all grade levels accompany the program. GEF’s comprehensive online curriculum library provides standards-based lessons, activities and projects that are easily incorporated into science, math, language arts, social studies, and creative arts curricula.
GEF will be tracking participating schools’ green energy efforts and spotlighting their results via GEF’s Green Energy Challenge Web site. Results will be posted on GEF’s Web site on Earth Day, April 22, 2011. Schools and youth groups are urged to register now to enroll in the free program and to receive a Green Energy Challenge eco-kit.
