Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs

Contact: Scott Slusher or Angela McGee

Tel: (615) 741-2994

Email: Scott.Slusher@tn.gov or Angela.McGee@tn.gov

The Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) sponsors Tennessee’s K-12 Energy Education Program. The program, entitled Tennessee Energy Education Network (TEEN), provides training and resources to classroom teachers and other educators, incorporating NEED as a cornerstone resource for comprehensive, curriculum-based energy education in schools and for student-led community outreach activities promoting energy efficiency and conservation.

The 2013-2014 school year built on the success of the previous year with a partnership with the University of Tennessee to continue the “Energizing Tennessee 4H” project. This project involved counties across the state with the NEED curriculum designed especially for 4H programs. TEEN conducted workshops to train 4H professionals who are participating in the project. Each participating county received funding to purchase the four NEED 4H Energy kits, which teach the science of heat energy, light energy, mechanical energy, and chemical energy along with the energy resources that fall under each of these forms of energy. “Energizing Tennessee 4H” has made a positive impact on thousands of students.
The 4H-ers conduct community outreach events reaching people with energy-saving tips and other information.
They collect EnergyStar Change-the-World pledges.
TEEN continues to promote participation in energy education
by classroom teachers and is offering three Energy Education Camps for Teachers during the summer of 2014. These camps
provide training and resources to conduct comprehensive energy education programs in their schools using the
NEED curriculum.

Teachers can access NEED curriculum online. As resources are available, teacher workshops
and hands-on kits are available. Individual state curriculum correlations are available here.