Summer Intensive 2021 Project ReCharge Professional Development-
Virtual Session: June 10th-12th 2021
Live Reno Session: July 26th – 28th 2021
If you are interested in finding out more about the year-long training, please use this link to fill out the Application. Once your information is added to our records, you will be among the first to be contacted for future training. Preference is given to two or more teachers applying from the same grade level at their schools. Teachers going through Project ReCharge together can share lesson ideas and resources which makes for an enriched program at their school.
More information can be found here.
Click on these icons to read more about Professional Development requirements and interesting Project ReCharge Facts!
Our first ever Sneak Peek has been a Smashing Success!
Hands-on training sessions: January – April.
We picked a few of our favorite innovative sustainability and energy efficiency lessons from our STEAM curriculum to share with teachers. They got to learn how fun, engaging, and impactful these topics can be for them and their students!
Look for more information on next year’s Sneak Peek
| Description | Grade Level Standards | ||
| Tue: 1/26/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Sustainability: Students are introduced to the three spheres of sustainability (People, Planet, Profit), consider their own contributions and efforts, and develop S.M.A.R.T sustainability goals and commit to making a change in their community. | Mandatory session |
| Tue 2/23/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Electrogeneration: Students complete a series of hands-on investigations to look at how electricity is generated using fossil fuels and how the connection between electricity and magnetism can be used as an alternative to burning fossil fuels. | Middle and High School |
| Wed 3/10/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Dashboard: Students investigate school buildings and their features in terms of energy efficiency. Students use McKinstry dashboard real-time data to compare and contrast energy usage to other schools similar to their school. | Middle and High School |
| Tue: 3/30/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Solar Power → students explore how electricity can be generated from sunlight using solar panels and a solar water pump and consider how this process positively impacts sustainability efforts. | Middle and High School |
| Wed 3/31/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Passive Cooling → students explore how insulation can be used to mitigate the impact of solar energy on a home in order to keep a home cool without the use of an air conditioner. | Elementary, Middle, and High School |
| Thur 4/1/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Lighting/Appliances → students explore the differences in cost and energy consumption of light bulbs and appliances to determine how to reduce energy cost and decrease their carbon footprint. | Elementary, Middle, and High School |
| Tue 4/6/21 | 4:00-6:00pm PST | Wind Power → students explore how wind can be used to generate electricity, by designing their own blades for a small wind turbine and collecting data from their designs. | Middle and High School |
- Interactive STEAM Curriculum
- Hand’s-On Professional Development
- Valuable Classroom Resources
- STEM Guest Speakers
- PD Credit or Stipend Option
Thanks to funding from Tesla & NV Energy Foundation, Project ReCharge is reaching two new school districts and thirteen new schools during the 2020-2021 academic year!
We launched 2020’s program with a virtual three-day summer intensive training in July. We will continue to meet with these teachers throughout the school year, ensuring they have our full support.
“Best science PD I’ve ever been involved in!”
Teachers that participate in Professional Development engage in numerous hands-on, energy focused activities such as using solar panels to pump water to experiment with different passive cooling techniques on a model house. They also participate in lessons on wind, solar, and the importance of the building envelope (the area between the interior and exterior of the building). These are just a few lessons that are a part of the 8-12 week Project ReCharge Curriculum.
Teachers surveyed about their experience at the summer training responded that they learned useful teaching strategies during the PD. All of the teachers felt that interacting with other teachers during the PD was useful. 100% of the teachers said they would recommend this PD course to a colleague.
Teacher quotes from Virtual PD 2020:
“I really appreciated all of the hard work and straightforwardness that went into turning this into a virtual event. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything from not being in person. It was great!”
“All of the lessons have been really valuable and pertinent. I feel like they are all things that I can actually use. I also feel a large amount of support from working with Envirolution as well. Support and continued training that hasn’t come with typical trainings.”
“Virtual is always hard to learn on, but you are making this really smooth.”
“The materials boxes were phenomenally laid out to facilitate easy learning. I would definitely recommend this training to others and am thankful I got to participate!”
“Wonderful. It was very well organized, it was engaging and educational!”
Below are a few photos of the lessons from our 2019 Project ReCharge Summer PD:
2018 Summer Professional Development — Learning about solar energy 
2019 Winter Professional Development — Board Member/Master Teacher Todd Markey leading a lesson 
Building a windmill 
Building envelope 
Creating a simple circuit 
Creating a closed circuit 
Passive cooling exercise 
Energy bike demo