Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education identifies seven Essential Principles and a set of Fundamental Concepts that, if understood and applied, will help individuals and communities make informed energy decisions. The intended audience is anyone involved in energy education from K-Gray and is meant to inform the improvement and development of energy curriculum to more broadly cover the Fundamental Concepts. The Energy Literacy Framework is free to download from the website and up to five hard copies can be ordered. The Energy Literate Citizenry from K-to-Gray: A Webcast on the Department of Energy's Energy Literacy Initiative is available online, including a PDF of the presentation.
The Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has a searchable library of K-12 Lesson Plans & Activities.
EERE Wind Office: Learn how wind turbines works with widget/animation. They also have a set of other wind energy basics multimedia, and a wind 101 video.
EERE Solar Office: Resources for teaching about solar including videos, graphics and animations.
Energy 101 videos are short videos on a variety of energy related topics. The DOE also has a general video site that can be searched for other topics and energy related talks.
The Department of Energy’s America’s Home Energy Education Challenge is designed to help students and their families save energy while earning awards for their schools.
Energy Kids, a site run by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, has a wide range of activities for students and information about how teachers can put this site to use.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Energy Explained site is a nonpartisan source for up-to-date energy facts and data on the entire range of energy topics.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) State Energy Portal includes interactive mapping, instant state comparisons, interactive state rankings, and an advanced state data finder to key statistics and analysis. To learn more, watch this video.
BITES (Building, Industry, Transportation, and Electricity Scenarios) tool is an interactive framework that lets users explore the energy and carbon implications of altering the current U.S. energy profile. Using 'what-if' scenarios, users are able to adjust inputs to the electricity generation, buildings, industry and transportation sectors in order to compare outcomes to baseline reference cases.
The State and Local Energy Efficiency Action Network (SEE Action) is a state- and local-led effort facilitated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take energy efficiency to scale and achieve all cost-effective energy efficiency by 2020. SEE Action offers publications, events, and technical assistance to state and local decision makers as they provide low-cost, reliable energy to their communities through energy efficiency. SEE Action has a listserv with announcements about upcoming events and new publications. Registration for newsletter can be found on their homepage.
ACS Nuclear & Radiochemistry Undergraduate Summer Schools is hosted at San Jose Stateand Brookhaven National Lab. The Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology of the American Chemical Society (ACS) sponsors two intensive six-week Summer Schools in Nuclear and Radiochemistry for undergraduates. Funding is provided by the US Department of Energy. Get course credit for participation, average GPA 3.8. Participants split b/t Liberal Arts and Research. Nearly 100 percent of participants go on to graduate studies or professional schools. This program has been going for almost 30 years.
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.
At the National Science Bowl, high school and middle school students participate in a nation-wide competition to test their knowledge of STEM fields and encourage students to explore careers in STEM. High school and middle school students are quizzed in a fast paced question-and-answer format similar to Jeopardy. For 2013, the national science bowl will be held April 25-29 in Washington DC.