Energy 2020 School
Implementation Guide
Click here for the video version of the
TGAED Implementation Guide.
Planning and coordinating your school’s The Great American Energy Debate program will be easy. I know that's what all guides say, however, this time it's very true. The design of the program and support services will make it easy for you to conduct a successful program with a modest to moderate amount of effort. If you want to go beyond successful to award winning, it will take a little more work.
Getting Organized
The very first thing is to read through the entire Implementation Guide, It’s only four pages.
Next step, visit the TGAED website to view a few of the instructional videos, and sample some of the activities. Next, develop a Preliminary Program Plan; we have provided a sample plan to help you achieve this objective.
Click here for a preliminary Energy 2020 School Program Plan.
Next, meet with your principal to discuss the project. Provide him or her with a one to two page Energy 2020 School Program Plan to provide an overview of the project. During the meeting be ready to respond to questions and concerns. You need the approval of your principal to proceed with the planning process as you will be contacting teachers, club advisers, and members of the community. Let your principal know that you will submit the final Program Plan once everything is in place.
Step 1: Secure Committee Members
Only one leader is really needed to coordinate and oversee the entire program especially if it is a small to moderately ambitious program. That one person could be a student or a staff member.
The school program can be conducted by a single class or club that will be responsible for the planning, coordinating, and evaluating of all the activities. Or, a class or club can take the leadership role in the project and secure the participation of other students groups to undertake individual activities.
To provide leadership opportunities, student program leaders should be recruited to take responsibility for one of the five (or fewer) major program tasks. A sixth student could be program director monitoring and coordinating the progress of the five program activity leaders.
More students and teachers will be needed to undertake specific assignments for the program; the number of students and teachers depends on the activities chosen. Student leaders from the National Honor Society, science club, student council, or school clubs can be candidates. Students interested in a career in teaching, such as members of the Future Educators Association, may be outstanding candidates for teaching an energy enriched lesson. Drama students or the morning school tv show crew would be great for hosting a Let's Talk Energy Show or Meet the Experts.
Decision #1
Decide if the program will be the sole responsibility of one group, or if other student groups will be asked to undertake individual activities.
If your group has sole responsibility for the program move on to Step 2.
If you wish to have the program conducted by several student groups, contact teacher advisers and student officers and request to make a presentation to their members at an upcoming meeting.
Click here for presentation strategies to club leaders.
Decision # 2
Decide if you want one or several local energy or community leaders to serve on your executive committee and to help with the formation of your plan. Or, will you want local leaders to only serve as speakers during your first year of programming?
Click here for a sample letter to send to an energy professional or community leader to join the committee.
Step 2: Design Your Program
Design your school program by selecting items from the menu. For a quick meal requiring little work select the appetizer and the Meet the Energy Experts as your main course and skip the dessert. For a bigger meal, select more main courses and desserts.
The Appetizer
We recommend that everyone begin the project with the on-line National Student Energy Survey. Just taking the 8-10 minute survey gets participants, students and if you want, adults, identifying and thinking about important energy issues. It's a very easy activity to conduct; each of the 13 questions has an optional 15-25 second video segment to support the question. A single student can organize the survey activity, or more if desired.
Once you register your school on the TGAED website, you will be given a school code. You will need that code later on to generate Survey results for one or more reporting groups such as grade levels, gender, and club membership. Your school's Survey results will be accompanied by a sample news release. You will be able then to release the information to your school paper and local paper. Survey results will also be announced at the state and national levels by media outlets.
If you are interested in surveying adults, instruction will be provided and the results tabulated separately from students. The survey services are free of charge through the support of local and national sponsors.
Click here for more information on how to coordinate the National Student Energy Survey.
Click here to PREVIEW the Natonal Student Energy Survey. (use code: 999999)
Click here to REGISTER for the survey.
The Main Course
Choose one or all three.
Energy Enriched Lessons developed utilizing the Common Core State Standards. What makes the lessons unique is that they are developed with extra detail and instructional videos so students can effectively teach the class.
In English class learn about the about the Smart Grid while reviewing main idea through elements of newspaper headlines and leads. In math, learn to calculate the effects of compounding energy growth, past and future. In science it’s Energy 101/ Thermal Energy Applications and last but not least, social studies where it’s Energy Conservation - Carrot or Stick or The Energy Focus Group.
If you decide to select this main course you will need to secure the participation and assistance of department heads or entire department. Contact your principal to help you arrange to speak at one or more of the regularly scheduled department meetings. You need not choose all four departments, however, having the participation of all four disciplines you will be able to provide more information and support a strong theme day. At the meeting explain the entire program and provide the department with the lesson or lessons you would like to conduct.
Click here for presentation suggestions to department chairs/meetings.
Click here to see lessons.
In addition to lessons there are additional entrees on the main course menu such as the Let’s Talk Energy Shows.
Let’s Talk Energy Shows
Student TV show hosts appear to interview experts live via satellite (pre-recorded, download from this website) about current energy issues... such as the pros and cons of wind power or nuclear energy, or increasing domestic energy production.
A student producer oversees all aspects of the show with the assistance of a Let’s Talk Energy Show Production Guide. Since the shows are scripted, hosts do not necessarily have to be science or math superstars; a drama student or a student interested in broadcasting will also be good candidates.
This main course can be conducted for a single class or for several classes, or for an adult community group.
Click here for Let’s Talk Energy Show Production Guide.
Click here to see shows.
Meet the Energy Expert
Another fun activity is Meet the Energy Expert; it is a very easy activity to undertake and will reap great rewards. Simply put, you invite a local expert to speak to the students. Experts might include auto dealers, a heating and cooling engineer, a building contractor, a senior citizen or two, or politician.
A script for the Host PowerPoint presentation is also provided with this activity. This will help the very busy expert focus his/her thoughts and streamline preparation time. A single student (teacher) reads the script and is the host the day the experts comes to class. Invited experts will need to be provided in advance with a script of questions and Host Power Point presentation.
This main course can be conducted for a single class or several classes, or for an adult community group.
Click here to learn more about preparing this main course.
Click here to see interview topic areas and sample questions.
Special Projects or Desserts
need not be ordered.
An appetizer and a main course will insure a great meal and program especially if you’re watching your time commitment.
If you want to fit in some more activities, there are several dessert items you can choose. You might want to consider teaching a lower grade level of students about energy. Or, conducting an evening Let's Talk Energy Show for a civic group, or inviting adults to share their energy opinions by participating in the Survey . You may wish to prompt local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations to provide energy information and stories. Burying an energy time capsule is a great project and PR event. A major dessert that will take some additional time to prepare is to invite students and teachers from other neighboring schools to attend your big program day.
Click here to see additional activities.
Step 3: Review the final plan with the principal
You may have received initial approval from the principal from the Preliminary Program Plan you submitted. Now you should provide your school administrators with a final plan. It will be similar to the Preliminary Program Plan with lots more details.
Meet with your principal and provide him or her with your school’s TGAED Program Plan. During your meeting provide an overview of the plan and respond to questions and concerns. A sample plan has provided to help you achieve this objective. Modify the sample to reflect your school plan.
Click here for sample TGAED Program Plan.
Step 4: Implement the plan and monitor program activities
Conducting a school program is like producing a musical or play. If everyone knows their lines, and if the stage crew has everything down, and if the promotion is done well and early, then the show will be a success. As the producer, you’re in charge of it all. If you have co-producers, they may have other major portions of the program, like overseeing the Energy Enriched Lessons, or the Meet the Experts sessions, or the Survey.
Once you have your plan, come up with a time line with milestones to monitor your progress.
Click here to see sample activity time lines.
Provide each program activity leader with a TGAED Time Line and Milestone sheet and impress upon him/her the importance of achieving the tasks as scheduled.
Keep everyone on task. Don’t wait until two days before your program to discover that the student hosts of The Lets Talk Energy Shows haven’t even looked at the script yet, or that the meetings with content area departments haven’t taken place yet.
Step 5: Publicizing the Program
The student leader in charge of publicity has several tasks to complete throughout the program, and not just a single publicity event. We are treating publicity as its own Step because it is a major method for educating students and adults from the community about energy. The more you do, the more publicity tasks to achieve.
Having state and federal elected officials speak at your school is great way of getting publicity for your program. The elected official’s press secretary will usually be more than willing to help with publicity.
Click here to see the publicity activities.
Step 5: Evaluation and Reporting
Evaluation is an ongoing process and must always be done immediately. Analyze what went well, and what needs to be done to make it better. Think about hat went wrong, and how it can be improved or eliminated. Program activity leaders also have responsibilities for evaluation; make sure they undertake this important process.
Compiling these evaluations and leaving them for next year’s program leader is your task. To help you in this process we have provided a reporting procedure and a form. Your suggestions will help to improve other school programs as well as your own.
Click here for evaluation reporting procedures and form.
Planning and coordinating your school’s The Great American Energy Debate program will be easy. I know that's what all guides say, however, this time it's very true. The design of the program and support services will make it easy for you to conduct a successful program with a modest to moderate amount of effort. If you want to go beyond successful to award winning, it will take a little more work.
Getting Organized
The very first thing is to read through the entire Implementation Guide, It’s only four pages.
Next step, visit the TGAED website to view a few of the instructional videos, and sample some of the activities. Next, develop a Preliminary Program Plan; we have provided a sample plan to help you achieve this objective.
Click here for a preliminary Energy 2020 School Program Plan.
Next, meet with your principal to discuss the project. Provide him or her with a one to two page Energy 2020 School Program Plan to provide an overview of the project. During the meeting be ready to respond to questions and concerns. You need the approval of your principal to proceed with the planning process as you will be contacting teachers, club advisers, and members of the community. Let your principal know that you will submit the final Program Plan once everything is in place.
Step 1: Secure Committee Members
Only one leader is really needed to coordinate and oversee the entire program especially if it is a small to moderately ambitious program. That one person could be a student or a staff member.
The school program can be conducted by a single class or club that will be responsible for the planning, coordinating, and evaluating of all the activities. Or, a class or club can take the leadership role in the project and secure the participation of other students groups to undertake individual activities.
To provide leadership opportunities, student program leaders should be recruited to take responsibility for one of the five (or fewer) major program tasks. A sixth student could be program director monitoring and coordinating the progress of the five program activity leaders.
More students and teachers will be needed to undertake specific assignments for the program; the number of students and teachers depends on the activities chosen. Student leaders from the National Honor Society, science club, student council, or school clubs can be candidates. Students interested in a career in teaching, such as members of the Future Educators Association, may be outstanding candidates for teaching an energy enriched lesson. Drama students or the morning school tv show crew would be great for hosting a Let's Talk Energy Show or Meet the Experts.
Decision #1
Decide if the program will be the sole responsibility of one group, or if other student groups will be asked to undertake individual activities.
If your group has sole responsibility for the program move on to Step 2.
If you wish to have the program conducted by several student groups, contact teacher advisers and student officers and request to make a presentation to their members at an upcoming meeting.
Click here for presentation strategies to club leaders.
Decision # 2
Decide if you want one or several local energy or community leaders to serve on your executive committee and to help with the formation of your plan. Or, will you want local leaders to only serve as speakers during your first year of programming?
Click here for a sample letter to send to an energy professional or community leader to join the committee.
Step 2: Design Your Program
Design your school program by selecting items from the menu. For a quick meal requiring little work select the appetizer and the Meet the Energy Experts as your main course and skip the dessert. For a bigger meal, select more main courses and desserts.
The Appetizer
We recommend that everyone begin the project with the on-line National Student Energy Survey. Just taking the 8-10 minute survey gets participants, students and if you want, adults, identifying and thinking about important energy issues. It's a very easy activity to conduct; each of the 13 questions has an optional 15-25 second video segment to support the question. A single student can organize the survey activity, or more if desired.
Once you register your school on the TGAED website, you will be given a school code. You will need that code later on to generate Survey results for one or more reporting groups such as grade levels, gender, and club membership. Your school's Survey results will be accompanied by a sample news release. You will be able then to release the information to your school paper and local paper. Survey results will also be announced at the state and national levels by media outlets.
If you are interested in surveying adults, instruction will be provided and the results tabulated separately from students. The survey services are free of charge through the support of local and national sponsors.
Click here for more information on how to coordinate the National Student Energy Survey.
Click here to PREVIEW the Natonal Student Energy Survey. (use code: 999999)
Click here to REGISTER for the survey.
The Main Course
Choose one or all three.
Energy Enriched Lessons developed utilizing the Common Core State Standards. What makes the lessons unique is that they are developed with extra detail and instructional videos so students can effectively teach the class.
In English class learn about the about the Smart Grid while reviewing main idea through elements of newspaper headlines and leads. In math, learn to calculate the effects of compounding energy growth, past and future. In science it’s Energy 101/ Thermal Energy Applications and last but not least, social studies where it’s Energy Conservation - Carrot or Stick or The Energy Focus Group.
If you decide to select this main course you will need to secure the participation and assistance of department heads or entire department. Contact your principal to help you arrange to speak at one or more of the regularly scheduled department meetings. You need not choose all four departments, however, having the participation of all four disciplines you will be able to provide more information and support a strong theme day. At the meeting explain the entire program and provide the department with the lesson or lessons you would like to conduct.
Click here for presentation suggestions to department chairs/meetings.
Click here to see lessons.
In addition to lessons there are additional entrees on the main course menu such as the Let’s Talk Energy Shows.
Let’s Talk Energy Shows
Student TV show hosts appear to interview experts live via satellite (pre-recorded, download from this website) about current energy issues... such as the pros and cons of wind power or nuclear energy, or increasing domestic energy production.
A student producer oversees all aspects of the show with the assistance of a Let’s Talk Energy Show Production Guide. Since the shows are scripted, hosts do not necessarily have to be science or math superstars; a drama student or a student interested in broadcasting will also be good candidates.
This main course can be conducted for a single class or for several classes, or for an adult community group.
Click here for Let’s Talk Energy Show Production Guide.
Click here to see shows.
Meet the Energy Expert
Another fun activity is Meet the Energy Expert; it is a very easy activity to undertake and will reap great rewards. Simply put, you invite a local expert to speak to the students. Experts might include auto dealers, a heating and cooling engineer, a building contractor, a senior citizen or two, or politician.
A script for the Host PowerPoint presentation is also provided with this activity. This will help the very busy expert focus his/her thoughts and streamline preparation time. A single student (teacher) reads the script and is the host the day the experts comes to class. Invited experts will need to be provided in advance with a script of questions and Host Power Point presentation.
This main course can be conducted for a single class or several classes, or for an adult community group.
Click here to learn more about preparing this main course.
Click here to see interview topic areas and sample questions.
Special Projects or Desserts
need not be ordered.
An appetizer and a main course will insure a great meal and program especially if you’re watching your time commitment.
If you want to fit in some more activities, there are several dessert items you can choose. You might want to consider teaching a lower grade level of students about energy. Or, conducting an evening Let's Talk Energy Show for a civic group, or inviting adults to share their energy opinions by participating in the Survey . You may wish to prompt local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations to provide energy information and stories. Burying an energy time capsule is a great project and PR event. A major dessert that will take some additional time to prepare is to invite students and teachers from other neighboring schools to attend your big program day.
Click here to see additional activities.
Step 3: Review the final plan with the principal
You may have received initial approval from the principal from the Preliminary Program Plan you submitted. Now you should provide your school administrators with a final plan. It will be similar to the Preliminary Program Plan with lots more details.
Meet with your principal and provide him or her with your school’s TGAED Program Plan. During your meeting provide an overview of the plan and respond to questions and concerns. A sample plan has provided to help you achieve this objective. Modify the sample to reflect your school plan.
Click here for sample TGAED Program Plan.
Step 4: Implement the plan and monitor program activities
Conducting a school program is like producing a musical or play. If everyone knows their lines, and if the stage crew has everything down, and if the promotion is done well and early, then the show will be a success. As the producer, you’re in charge of it all. If you have co-producers, they may have other major portions of the program, like overseeing the Energy Enriched Lessons, or the Meet the Experts sessions, or the Survey.
Once you have your plan, come up with a time line with milestones to monitor your progress.
Click here to see sample activity time lines.
Provide each program activity leader with a TGAED Time Line and Milestone sheet and impress upon him/her the importance of achieving the tasks as scheduled.
Keep everyone on task. Don’t wait until two days before your program to discover that the student hosts of The Lets Talk Energy Shows haven’t even looked at the script yet, or that the meetings with content area departments haven’t taken place yet.
Step 5: Publicizing the Program
The student leader in charge of publicity has several tasks to complete throughout the program, and not just a single publicity event. We are treating publicity as its own Step because it is a major method for educating students and adults from the community about energy. The more you do, the more publicity tasks to achieve.
Having state and federal elected officials speak at your school is great way of getting publicity for your program. The elected official’s press secretary will usually be more than willing to help with publicity.
Click here to see the publicity activities.
Step 5: Evaluation and Reporting
Evaluation is an ongoing process and must always be done immediately. Analyze what went well, and what needs to be done to make it better. Think about hat went wrong, and how it can be improved or eliminated. Program activity leaders also have responsibilities for evaluation; make sure they undertake this important process.
Compiling these evaluations and leaving them for next year’s program leader is your task. To help you in this process we have provided a reporting procedure and a form. Your suggestions will help to improve other school programs as well as your own.
Click here for evaluation reporting procedures and form.