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Great Online Resources for Teaching Conservation
These K-12 resources are excellent and virtually all Free !
Many lesson plans are designed to meet State and National Standards.
Some sites cover K-12. Some focus on a range of grade levels.
They range from very basic to appropriately advanced science.
They have been selected as the most useful for classroom teachers.
- Free, extensive, and well-organized wide range of interactive and standards based teaching resources including lesson plans, resources, projects, games, teacher networking & training, parent participation, etc.
- Very Large website with excellent graphics. Thousands of free downloadable lesson plans. Supported by many respected national organizations.
- The four-minute video site tour is truly a remarkable eye opener.
- ASE has great Green Schools and Green Campus Programs. It includes concise, clear, and sufficiently detailed stories of how sixty California schools in ten districts taught by doing to achieve great learning experiences, plus substantial real world energy/money savings, and abundant positive public recognition.
- Includes many success stories of districts that saved up to a $600,000. a year on energy costs.
- These programs will work anywhere !
- A description of the Green Schools Program, lesson plans, implementation guide, and contacts for teacher support can be found at:
ase.org/programs/green-schools-program - A good example of a typical ASE lesson plan organization and content for a middle school class can be found at:
ase.org/resources/summertime-soda-and-solar-energy-insulating-keep-heat-or-out
- Excellent reference section of over 1,000 educators and 2,000 programs searchable by grade level and/or subject and/or area that shows pre-K-12 resources available in California. Most are free, some are not.
- Comprehensive section on funding sources with instruction on how to get the money. Many are national funding resources for schools, although most are focused on California or on the environment.
- Project Learning Tree is a 30-year old award winning environmental education program for pre-K-12.
- PLT has 3,000 volunteers participating in all states.
- They offer learning kits and programs that include music and dance.
- PLT meets many state and national standards, while supporting students to become environmentally literate citizens.
- This National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) site features the Ten most popular and widely used environmental educations programs for K-12.
- ClassroomEarth emphasizes materials for High School teachers.
- The Department has several truly outstanding websites with excellent programs and materials for teachers.
- 350 downloadable lesson plans and activities on energy efficiency and renewables for grades K-12. Plans include summary, curriculum integration, time, materials, and national standards.
www.eere.energy.gov/education/lessonplans - The Department of Energy program to make major improvements in the energy efficiency of American school buildings. The program includes a range of resources from student projects, school maintenance improvements, retrofitting, new construction, and financing. It has online training programs and downloadable publications.
www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energysmartschools - A great site for kids grades 2-5 with good interactive graphics on energy conservation is at:
www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=kids.kids_index - Department of Energy site with focus of science bowls and academic teacher training in science including advanced degrees.
www.nrel.gov/education
- This award winning non-profit offers 900 plus science project ideas with step-by-step guidelines and an online mentoring program for K-12 students.
- Teacher resources include an Ask an Expert volunteer scientist forum and guidance in planning science fairs.
- The California Energy Commission website has links to extensive educational conservation resources for teachers including many from other states and countries.
- K-12 teacher resources include videos & DVDs, energy lesson plans, projects, interactive games, and some sources of grant money.
- Free Internet based learning activities for K-12 Teachers that are well organized by grade around benchmarks for science literacy including energy related topics.
- Action projects for environmental education in classrooms. Project descriptions include objectives and extensive links to other resources.
- TheGreenNews.net is an online newsletter by and for teens.
- Kids focused site with online videos, games, teacher resources, projects, and downloadable materials developed by the State of California.
- The CDE site offers downloadable materials on energy conservation and a Activity Package with 127 pages of downloadable lesson plans and materials for grades 4-6.
- Worldwide portal site to free national and worldwide resources for all educational levels. Wide range of subjects, curricula, organizations, events, projects, networking, etc.
- Worldwide portal site for K-12 students with games, projects, multi-media resources, interesting student sites from many countries, events, global links, clubs & groups, volunteering opportunities, etc.
- P G & E provides free classroom materials on energy efficiency for grades K-8 within the PG&E Northern California service area. Includes teacher curriculum guides and student activities.
- Check with your local utilities to find similar programs.
- A great list of excellent and free online resources compiled by a STPSB Energy Conservation Specialist named Pat Flanigan.
- The resources on the site are well organized in several useful categories including getting good video links, independent study sites, getting grants, lesson plans, projects and contests, etc.
- This site is a labor of love by one able person.
- Free and easy to perform grades 4-12 science and environmental experiments including conservation and alternative energy. Can be immediately downloaded as PDF files.
- Awards program for students who do the experiments.
- National Energy Education Development non-profit organization produces hands-on energy study projects and curricula for K-12 at reasonable prices.
- Portal to Earth Day events, activities, and projects.
- A short introduction to the topic of global warming, plus links to lesson plans, games, worksheets, and information resources.
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Please! 
Ask the Insulation Guy!