Our participants spent a week during summer to “charge” their minds during an energy-themed course designed to help them meet the revised MA Science and Technology/Engineering Standards! They visited the Lloyd Center for the Environment, Battleship Cove, and the National Marine Life Center and delved into “hands-on, minds-on” experiences that used a variety of tools, methods, and technologies that built on their previous knowledge and experience. They used their new skills to create exciting inquiry-based energy and climate science activities for their students, and explored energy in all its forms. Participants investigated energy systems of the earth and its oceans to help them to better contextualize climate change for their students. They also examined alternative energy sources as they learned about how technology and engineering have advanced our development and utilization of such sources.

Teachers experimented with solar panels and motors during inquiry-based activities to experience how solar power works. They toured local buildings that have successfully incorporated alternative energy sources as part of green initiatives, built model wind turbines, and discussed how to incorporate simple solar solutions into a classroom curriculum. They engaged in science and engineering practices and challenged themselves to design an innovative solution to an environmental problem in a group setting. They learned more about how energy and climate science fall within the revised 2016 STE Standards, and how they can implement these standards in their own classrooms. Our participants experienced a week of investigations, hands-on activities, and group discussions and will return to their classrooms fortified and ready to excite their students about sustainability, technology, engineering and math!