CRDG’s Teaching Science as Inquiry (TSI) program partnered with the Maui Economic Development Board to present their Island Energy inquiry workshop statewide this year. Piloted in 2009 on Maui, the workshops were geared toward science standards for grades 5–12 and focused on integrating science with technology and engineering. Typical of the TSI program, the workshops combined instruction in inquiry as a teaching strategy with science content. And in keeping with CRDG’s collaborative approach, each workshop brought in experts from the island where it was taught.
Each workshop focused on three areas: solar energy, energy efficiency, and wind. For each topic, teachers went through an inquiry lesson and then heard from a community resource. Teachers went home with everything they needed to teach the inquiry lesson in their classrooms and with new contacts in their communities. The Island Energy inquiry curriculum is freely available at www.islandenergyinquiry.com.
Community Partners
- Maui Economic Development Board, Women in Technology
- University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program
- Hawai‘i Department of Education
Maui
- Maui Electric Company
- Energy Consulting Associates
- Entegrity Wind Systems
O‘ahu
- Hawaiian Electric Company
- Bonterra Solar
- Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute
- Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy
- Ocean Resources Engineering
Hawai‘i Island
- Hawai‘i Pacific Academy Energy Lab
- Class Solar
- Hawai‘i Electric Light Company
- Digital Science Solutions
Kaua‘i
- Kaua‘i Community College
- Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative
- University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program