michelle fox - changing the conversation about connections: energy literacy

1 | Education & Workforce Development eere.energy.gov

Changing the Conversation about Connections: energy literacy

Michelle Fox

Chief Strategist for Education & Workforce

US Department of Energy

March 15, 2012


• Many firms in energy efficiency and renewable energy are finding that they are not able to find people with skills matched to their new requirements. Retirements of skilled workers adds to the problem.

• President’s Jobs Council: “Lack of alignment between what employers need and what skills are taught and delivered is becoming a critical problem for business and the nation.” [2011 Year End Report, p. 13]

• The nation’s education system is not producing people with the needed skills and systems for retraining the existing workforce are inadequate.

• Between 2000 and 2006, the number of countries scoring higher than the United States on the Program for International Student Assessment rose from 6 to 12

Energy Education Challenge

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind10/c2/c2h.htm

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind10/c2/c2h.htm


EERE Education & Workforce Development


EERE Activities

K-12 Education

Technical Training/Community Colleges

Undergraduate Programs

Graduate/Post DocPrograms

o Competitionso Curricula Updateo Wind for Schoolso Badgeso NEA priority

schools program

o National Education & Training Resource (NTER)

o Job Task Analyses, National Certifications and Standards Development

o Weatherization Training Centers

o Solar Instructor Training Network

o Solar Code Official Trainingo Commercial Building

Technician Trainingo Electronic badges

Cross-Cutting EffortsWeb Site - Career Maps - Interagency Coordination - Strategic Partnerships - Outreach - Evaluation

o Solar Decathlono Wind for Schools Wind

Application Centerso Fuel Cell Design Contesto Geothermal Student

Competitiono Industrial Assessment

Centerso Hydro Research

Fellowshipso Tribal Internshipso Energy 101 Courseo EE courses for the

Serviceso Advanced Vehicle

Competition

o Graduate Automotive Tech (GATE) Fellowships

o Solar MURAo EERE Post Doc

Research Awardso SunShot Research

Awardso Tribal Internshipso Hydro Research

Fellowships


Energy Literacy


Energy Literacy Initiative

Promote Energy Literacy

The Department will actively participate in the development and implementation of a coordinated national energy education or “energy literacy” effort. A modest understanding of energy sources, generation, use and conservation strategies will enable informed decisions on topics from home energy use to international energy policy. The Department will leverage relationships with academic institutions, other federal agencies, industry, organizations, and other stakeholders to improve awareness and understanding of energy issues.

Targeted Outcomes: •Identify by 2012 the most promising educational opportunities to improve domestic energy literacy. •Provide online energy literacy content by 2013 for the National Training and Education Resource platform.

[DOE Strategic Plan, May 2011]


Energy Literacy

Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental

Concepts for Energy Education

Part of the DOE-wide push to improve public energy literacy. See the DOE, May 2011 Strategic Plan, page 21.

An effort to define what it means to be energy literate and to identify the essential understandings that underlie this literacy.

An effort to promote public energy literacy based on the above definition and understandings.

Centerpiece – A guiding document that provides context, background and definitions, along with identifying the Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts that underlie Energy Literacy.

Two Initial Phases to thisEnergy Literacy Effort

Phase 1 - Develop and publish the guiding document.Phase 2 – Publicize and promote the guiding document. Assembly and dissemination of supporting educational materials, trainings, professional development and other energy education resources and opportunities.

Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education, is building off of, and improving on, a model established previous literacy projects.

http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/maprod/documents/DOE_2011-Strategic-Plan_Print-Quality.pdf


Energy Literacy

The Essential Principles

of Energy Education:


Energy Literacy

EssentialPrinciple 6:


Energy Literacy

Back Cover:


The Document Development Process• Development of this guide began at a workshop sponsored by DOE and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the fall of 2010. Multiple federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and numerous individuals contributed to the development through an extensive review and comment process. Discussion and information gathered at AAAS, WestEd and DOE-sponsored Energy Literacy workshops in the spring of 2011 contributed substantially to the refinement of the guide.

• Email-based mailing list of stakeholders used to provide and receive information. Currently, there are just over 500 members representing more than 250 different offices and organizations.

• An Energy Literacy wiki page where the public was able to learn about the initiative and provide information on Energy Literacy.

• Drafting of final language by federal agency employees (Inter-Agency Education Working Group).

• Document content accuracy review. Review performed by federal agency content area experts.

• US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) facilitation of federal agency and OSTP/NSTC approval.

Energy Literacy

https://wiki.citizen.apps.gov/Energy_Literacy/index.php/Stakeholders

http://www.globalchange.gov/


Project Status as of 3/13/2012

• 13 USGCRP agencies have approved the document language.

• Approval of the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy has been secured.

• Official release of the document is scheduled for late March or early April.

Energy Literacy


Energy 101


Energy 101

Energy 101

Creating a nationally recognized interdisciplinary general education energy course for community colleges and universities

•DOE EERE providing support for the development of a interdisciplinary energy course that can be used to meet different general education requirements across the country

• Energy 101 will also leverage the use of the National Training and Education Resource (NTER) as an open source tool for authoring and sharing course content using the latest web-based technology and interactivity

• Using NTER allows for the easy modification and customization of course to fit the needs of individual college or university


The Starting Point

•On May 25th the Association of Public Land Grant Universities (APLU) held a public listening session on the topic of Energy 101

• 32 schools participated in the session with another 58 schools on the mailing list

•Overwhelming support for an Energy 101 course

•Identify potential pathways for adoption of a nationwide Energy 101 course

Work in Progress

•Preliminary analysis of university and community college energy related course offerings and curriculum review of over 50 community colleges & universities

• Identify potential core components to a general Energy 101 course; physical, societal, environmental, and economic aspects

•Development and drafting of Energy 101 core components– Feedback from educators and other experts

– Develop proposed list of modules for Energy 101

•Create example Energy 101 course modules for demonstration using the National Training and Educational Resource (NTER) platform

– Gather feedback and reviews

Works in Progress


• Energy is an interdisciplinary topic– Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Psychology, Math,

Engineering, & Sociology all touch on energy fundamentals

• Surveyed 52 college & University course catalogs for energy or energy topics in course descriptions (270)– 74 out of 270 were 100 level freshman courses– Sustainability & Environment, Energy & the Environment, Energy

& the Economy, Energy & Society, Energy Policy, Climate & Global Change, Physics of Energy

• 22 out of 52 universities and community colleges offered a minor degree or certificate in energy studies

• There are a number of courses, content & best practices to pull from to design an interdisciplinary Energy 101 course

Preliminary Analysis


NTER


• New Learning Tools make possible:

– Highly interactive environments

– Inquiry-based learning

– Bridge theory to practice (explore, operate equipment without the consequences of failure)

– Varied and Contrasting examples

– Demonstration

– Access to expertise

– Feedback

– Continuous assessment

– Collaborative environments

– Endlessly patient medium

We know how to train and educate better!


Support the growth of a capable and flexible workforce by providing quality education and training easily and efficiently through the advances of information technology and recommendations of learning science. •Create a flourishing ecosystem for next generation learning content•Develop easy-to-use tools to empower anyone to develop engaging content•Integrate with existing online projects and standards to amplify individual efforts•Leverage the power of social media to enable collaboration and improvement of online materials•Use the flexibility of open source licensing to grow and develop the platform and tools

NTER Vision


Subsystem Function Lines of Code Main Sponsor

Ilias Course Management(LMS)

1,300,000 DOD/NATO

Liferay Enterprise portal (for displaying and configuring other services)

2,150,000 Cisco

MySQL Database Management System 1,280,340 Oracle

Jasper Reporting Engine 228,856 Jasper

Apache Web Server Software 248,980 Apache

Apache-httpd More Web Server Software 438,785 Apache

Solr Full text search & navigation 854,662 Apache

Nutch Web-search software 82,181 Apache

Hadoop Support data-intensive distributed applications in the cloud

1,343,735 Yahoo! / Apache

WebGL (deprecated O3D) Enables browser-based interactive content 34,369 Google

Total 7,961,908

NTER by the Numbers

Leveraged code valued at $600M -- $800M


What does NTER do?

Users

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Defense

NRCERT

U.S. Department of Education

Registry

UMass/Dartmouth


• Build 3D simulations without programming• Runs in browser; no heavy downloads

Authoring tool for 3D content creation


Performance-based testing

Correctly install the proper type of wall joint to complete the structure.

Trading this…. For meaningful, performance-based assessment


CommercializationCommercialization

•Icons allow users to identify permissions

•Presents information about source

4 ways to build a market:

1. Courses2. Instruction (blended)3. Content 4. Degrees / certificates


Screenshot of Available Courses


NTER in the News


• AFFIRM • NIBS• Chief Learning Officer

NTER Awards


• DOE’s Energy Technology Programs (Solar, Vehicles, Advanced Manufacturing,/Industrial Technologies, Federal energy Management Programs)

• Other DOE Offices: Health, Safety and Security, Office of Electricity.• National Labs: LBL, NREL, PNNL, INL• The Center for Energy Workforce Development• Advanced Manufacturing Initiative: National Association of Manufacturer’s

Manufacturing Institute; Ford’s Partnership for Advanced Studies; MAGMA (representing the big 3 automakers); Macomb Community College

• A significant number of the winning applicants in the Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Act ($500million solicitation)

• Department of Defense (SPAWARS, ADL)• 6 Weatherization Centers• Universities, colleges, corporate training facilities• Under consideration by 4 other cabinet level agencies and emergency

response training center

Early Adopters/Partners


Federal Partnerships


Strategic Federal Coordination Objectives:1.Use evidence-based approaches. Ensure Federal STEM investments incorporate what is known about effective STEM education and evidence-based practices in STEM education.

2.Identify and share evidence-based approaches. Conduct STEM education research and evaluation to identify evidence-based practices and assess program effectiveness. Enhance sharing of research and evaluation findings across agencies and with the public.

3.Increase efficiency and coherence. Ensure Federal STEM education investments are coordinated in order to utilize and leverage Federal resources efficiently.

4.Identify and focus on priority areas. Align a subset of the Federal STEM education investments to focus on Federal STEM education priority areas in a coordinated manner. The four priority areas identified are:

1. Effective K-12 STEM teacher education

2. Engagement

3. Undergraduate STEM education

4. Serving groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields

NSTC CO-STEM


Federal STEM Education Portfolio:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/costem__federal_stem_education_portfolio_report.pdf

Federal STEM Education Coordination Report:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/nstc_federal_stem_education_coordination_report.pdf

NSTC –STEM Reports


Thank you!

[email protected]

michelle fox - changing the conversation about connections: energy literacy

Education

energy educationphase

energy issues

energy efficiency

public energy literacy

education cross

online energy literacy

home energy use

international energy