Education » Project ReCharge

Interactive Energy Education in OUR Community

What is Project ReCharge?

Project ReCharge is a hands-on, project based Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) curriculum and training program that engages students, teachers and professionals in the community. This interactive energy education program provides valuable professional development and classroom resources to teachers, who then empower middle school and high school students to become energy detectives focused on saving their home, school and community money through energy efficiency and sustainability proposals. Innovative lessons, energy data and interactive dashboards engage students and teachers as they learn about energy generation, consumption and efficiency.

This year we are getting creative and offering our teachers additional materials so students can still learn through doing!  All necessary precautions for material preparation, disbursement and cleaning are being taken as well.  Please find our Project ReCharge Materials Cleaning Protocol here. 

Project ReCharge focuses on real-world learning and application that has a measurable impact on students, the environment and the community at large.

Want to Be a ReCharge Teacher?

Program Components

• Interactive STEAM Curriculum

  The Project ReCharge curriculum consists of five separate units that provide teachers with 8-12 weeks of hands-on, project-based lessons and activities focused on energy generation, consumption and efficiency.

  Learn more about the curriculum and standards

  

• Hands On Professional Development

  Participating Project ReCharge teachers receive extensive hands-on professional development training on the lessons and activities covered in the curriculum.

  Learn more about our professional development

  

• Valuable Classroom Resources

  Teachers are provided with classroom resources to help effectively implement the hands on lessons and activities.

  Details on Classroom Resources

  

• Innovative Energy Data

  Project ReCharge curriculum incorporates actual school energy bills and beginning in 2019/2020 use of the WCSD energy dashboards for real-time energy monitoring to engage students by analyzing the school’s energy use and seasonal trends.

  

• Project Based Efficiency Proposals

  The students use their Project ReCharge knowledge and work with facility staff and energy experts to develop proposals to save their school energy and money.

  Learn more about the student proposals that have been implemented

  

• STEM Guest Speakers

  Envirolution helps bring in STEM career professionals into the classrooms, allowing students the opportunity to hear first hand the benefits of a STEM education and the job opportunities in our community.

  Learn more about our STEM Guest Speakers

  

Project ReCharge Funders

• Tesla Motors

  Tesla has made an initial investment of $262,700 to Envirolution for Project ReCharge to help support STEM and sustainability efforts at the K-12 level.

  Read more

  

• The Washoe County School District

  continues to be a key supporter of Project ReCharge, as seen through their approval and financing of student proposals.

  

• The NV Energy Foundation

  The NV Energy Foundation provided Envirolution with a $7,000 grant in December 2017 to help support existing Project ReCharge teachers throughout Northern Nevada. This funding will provide more classroom materials, updated curriculum and ongoing support. The Foundation provided a follow-up grant of $8,000 for classroom kits in June 2018.

  

• Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy (NGOE)

  The Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy (NGOE) provided a generous $60,000 grant to support Professional Development of 20 Project ReCharge STEM teachers for the 2018-2019 school year and to supply them with necessary classroom curriculum and materials. We received a $10,000 donation in June of 2019

  

• The National Science Foundation

  The National Science Foundation provided generous funding for Project ReCharge under Grant DRL-1433597, investing $1.2 million into energy education over 3 years (2014-2017). This grant allowed Project ReCharge to partner with 11 schools, train 47 teachers and reach over 4,500 students.

  

• The Nevada Department of Education Math/Science Partnership Grant

  The Nevada Department of Education Math/Science Partnership Grant funded the Northern Nevada Energy Efficiency Teacher Training Initiative (NNEETTI) that supported the expansion of Project ReCharge for the 2017/2018 academic year.

  

• Climate Action for Schools

  Envirolution received a $4,000 grant from Climate Action for Schools Energy Coalition for implementing Project ReCharge student projects.

  

Program Partners

• Washoe County School District

  has been an active partner since the program’s inception in 2009 and continues to be instrumental in introducing the program to local middle school and high schools.

  

• Tesla Motors

  We have worked with Tesla to establish a detailed, multi-year plan to expand Project ReCharge across the state of Nevada.

  read more

  

• Douglas County School District

  joined Project ReCharge in 2016 bringing in 4 new teachers and 70 students from Douglas High School and 170 from Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School. In 2018, Carson Valley Middle School was added.

  

• Carson City School District

  Adopted Project ReCharge in 2017 and is instrumental in introducing the project to local middle school and high schools.

  

• Pyramid Lake Jr/Sr High School

  Adopted the Project ReCharge program in 2017 thanks to the Nevada Department of Education Math/Science Partnership Grant

  

• The University of Nevada-Reno

  UNR was a key partner under the NSF and Math/Science Partnership grant and is responsible for aligning Project ReCharge curriculum to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

  

• Churchill County School District

  Churchill County partnered with Project ReCharge in 2018 with 3 teachers from Churchill Middle School.

  

• Sierra Plumas Joint Unified

  Loyalton Middle and High School joined Project ReCharge in 2018-2019 becoming our first school in California.

  

• Lyon County School District

  Dayton High School joined the Project ReCharge ranks in 2017.