June 11, 2009 02:21 pm
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Eufaula Elementary teacher Diana Goodwin’s program to teach students about conservation earned the OERB/Harlan Krumme Memorial Energy Education Grant.
The grant provides funding for energy education programs that teach students about energy usage — specifically oil and natural gas — efficiency, conservation and their importance in Oklahoma history.
Goodwin, a National Board Certified Teacher, entered a project called PETRO POSSE — Practice Every day To Reduce/Reuse/Recycle Oil Products at Oklahoma Schools to Save Energy. The project educates students about nonrenewable resources, fossil fuels, and ways to save energy. Students observe energy use and waste around their school and collect data. Using this data, students then brainstorm ideas for saving energy by reducing, reusing and recycling. Those ideas get shared in a reference book written by the children.
“I always try to incorporate the science activities and methods from the OERB curriculum into the other subjects I teach,” Goodwin said in a media release. “I also wanted to inspire my students and others about ways to reduce waste at school. This seemed like a great way to do both.”
Goodwin received $500 for classroom materials and another $500 for personal use. Her lesson plan will be posted on the OERB Web site for other educators to download and incorporate into their classroom.
The OERB Education Department provides several hands-on curricula for the classroom. The Fossils to Fuel program for elementary students, a Petro Active program for middle schools students and CORE Energy, a novel energy education curriculum for students in grades nine through 12. This fall, the OERB will unveil a new curriculum for kindergarten through second grade students called Little Bits. Teachers can sign up for workshops to learn the curricula by visiting www.oerb.com/teachers.
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