Workshop: Second National Energy Education Summit: Building a Community for Interdisciplinary Teaching About Energy for a Sustainable Future

National Council For Science And The Environment/Cedd, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

1636996 Blockstein Energy/Environment Education is an emerging field and the community of university faculty members and pre-college teachers across many disciplines are teaching about energy and environment in a societal context through a broad range of courses and degree-granting programs in many academic departments. However, these educators are geographically distributed, disconnected and have limited opportunities to come together around the issue of teaching energy. This workshop develops and advances partnerships that focus on transitioning the world to a new constantly improving energy systems. The emerging meta-field of energy education is in its infancy. The workshop will be: 1. A forum for energy educators in K-12, higher education, and informal education to share best practices and develop new partnerships. 2. An opportunity for energy, environmental and STEM educators to gather with leaders from business, industry, government and civil society to raise the profile and expand the effectiveness of energy education. 3. A platform designed to catalyze new initiatives and partnerships in energy education. 4. An arena to address issues at both the classroom level (content, curriculum and pedagogy) and at the programmatic level (degree and sub-degree programs). The workshop will help advance a broadly-defined, interdisciplinary field of energy education that will include elements of science, technology, political economy, history, ethics, environmental, and cultural studies. It will strengthen the energy content and context for STEM education and advance interdisciplinary energy education to inspire a greater diversity of students to consider jobs and careers in the energy sector, an area of need in the US workforce. A broader integration of energy education will expand the relevance and practicality of STEM education and forge critical connections with research on energy literacy and catalyze the convergence between STEM education, environmental education, and education for sustainability.