Argonne to host 2013 Sustainability Workshops for Middle School and High School Teachers

By Diana Anderson, Writer/Editor, Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory is hosting two Sustainability Workshops for Middle School and High School Teachers in June and July this year. The workshops help build teachers’ energy literacy — on current energy technologies, complexities of alternative energy technologies, conserving energy and natural resources, and building efficiency and transportation — so they can pass knowledge on to the next generation within their classrooms.

Argonne scientists work directly with teachers during the national laboratory’s five-day sustainability workshops on topics such as climate change, benefits and risks of common energy sources, urban planning and land use, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and biofuels. The workshops feature seminars, tours and hands-on lab experiments such as building titanium dioxide solar cells and then testing them for power levels, efficiency and capacity. Each teacher leaves with a toolbox full of teacher-developed materials and lesson plans, in-line with Next Generation Science Standards that they can use in the classroom.

Argonne National Laboratory was recognized in September 2012 at the second annual U.S. Department of Energy Sustainability Awards in Washington, D.C. for its Sustainability Workshops for Teachers.

“Today’s Sustainability Award winners are leading by example, showing what’s possible when employees bring creativity, innovation and dedication to their efforts to make the Department of Energy more sustainable,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman.

Argonne’s Sustainability Workshops for Teachers were launched in 2011 and attract educators from across the Chicagoland region including areas such as Bloomingdale, Chicago, Crete, Glen Ellyn, Glenview, Naperville, Orland Park, Plainfield, Tinley Park and Wheaton. Argonne’s Sustainability Workshops for Middle School and High School Teachers are offered free of charge and teachers have the option to receive Illinois teacher continuing education units (CEUs) from Argonne and/or semester graduate college credit from Aurora University, the later for a fee.

Additional information and registration for the 2013 Sustainability Workshops for Middle School and High School Teachers is available online.

Information and articles about Argonne’s Sustainability Program are also available online.