Research indicates that reductions in personal energy use can be effective in reducing a country's overall carbon dioxide emissions, potentially lessening the impacts of global climate change. However, the public is generally ill informed about energy use and the energy-saving behaviors that can lead to these reductions in emissions. As such, it is necessary to begin educating future citizens about the energy system and energy use in an effort to foster more energy literate students. This thesis uses existing research about energy literacy and misconceptions among students to create a cohesive curriculum unit to promote energy literacy through teaching about energy behaviors and use. High-quality lessons and activities about energy were found and compiled into a systems thinking curricular unit comprised of two activity cycles that address energy use, conservation, and efficiency, and the role students play in the larger energy system. Following the curriculum, a discussion connects each of the activities within the curriculum to systems thinking literature, educational theory, and the energy literacy research. Next, an exploration of where the activities within this curriculum guide can fit into various high school courses is included. Finally, curriculum writers were contacted in order to illuminate the barriers to distributing high-quality curricular units to science educators, and opportunities for further dissemination of research-based curriculums are presented.

This book gathers the proceedings of the 6th International Conference and Exhibition on Sustainable Energy and Advanced Materials (ICE-SEAM 2019), held on 16–17 October 2019 in Surakarta, Indonesia. It focuses on two relatively broad areas – advanced materials and sustainable energy – and a diverse range of subtopics: Advanced Materials and Related Technologies: Liquid Crystals, Semiconductors, Superconductors, Optics, Lasers, Sensors, Mesoporous Materials, Nanomaterials, Smart Ferrous Materials, Amorphous Materials, Crystalline Materials, Biomaterials, Metamaterials, Composites, Polymers, Design, Analysis, Development, Manufacturing, Processing and Testing for Advanced Materials. Sustainable Energy and Related Technologies: Energy Management, Storage, Conservation, Industrial Energy Efficiency, Energy-Efficient Buildings, Energy-Efficient Traffic Systems, Energy Distribution, Energy Modeling, Hybrid and Integrated Energy Systems, Fossil Energy, Nuclear Energy, Bioenergy, Biogas, Biomass Geothermal Power, Non-Fossil Energies, Wind Energy, Hydropower, Solar Photovoltaic, Fuel Cells, Electrification, and Electrical Power Systems and Controls.

In response to years of American students demonstrating poor understanding of energy and energy-related issues, a number of groups have sought to improve student energy literacy by developing curriculum that engages and motivates students to learn more about this important subject. Although the energy documentary film Switch was not produced with a classroom experience in mind, the success of the film in connecting with environmentalists, industry, and academia supported using the documentary to test the power of film as an effective teaching tool for improving energy literacy. To test the effectiveness of Switch, we created an assessment tool to first determine students’ baseline energy literacy, and then determine whether the documentary effected a change. This assessment indicated that many incoming college students identify their Advanced Placement Environmental Science class as the place they learned about energy. The assessment results indicate that students’ attitude, behavior, and knowledge about energy and energy-related issues changed in a statistically significant way over the course of a 2-3 day learning experience. The effect size increase of 0.47 on energy knowledge supports using the documentary Switch, and similar non-partisan films designed for objective education, as inexpensive, scalable teaching tools to introduce energy in the classroom

This volume presents current thoughts, research, and findings that were presented at a summit focusing on energy as a cross-cutting concept in education, involving scientists, science education researchers and science educators from across the world. The chapters cover four key questions: what should students know about energy, what can we learn from research on teaching and learning about energy, what are the challenges we are currently facing in teaching students this knowledge, and what needs be done to meet these challenges in the future? Energy is one of the most important ideas in all of science and it is useful for predicting and explaining phenomena within every scientific discipline. The challenge for teachers is to respond to recent policies requiring them to teach not only about energy as a disciplinary idea but also about energy as an analytical framework that cuts across disciplines. Teaching energy as a crosscutting concept can equip a new generation of scientists and engineers to think about the latest cross-disciplinary problems, and it requires a new approach to the idea of energy. This book examines the latest challenges of K-12 teaching about energy, including how a comprehensive understanding of energy can be developed. The authors present innovative strategies for learning and teaching about energy, revealing overlapping and diverging views from scientists and science educators. The reader will discover investigations into the learning progression of energy, how understanding of energy can be examined, and proposals for future directions for work in this arena. Science teachers and educators, science education researchers and scientists themselves will all find the discussions and research presented in this book engaging and informative.

The direction of higher education is at a crossroads against a background of mounting sustainability-related issues and uncertainties. This book seeks to inspire positive change in higher education by exploring the rich notion of the sustainable university and illustrating pathways through which its potential can be realised. Based on the experience of leading higher education institutions in the UK, the book outlines progress in the realisation of the concept of the ‘sustainable university’ appropriate to the socioeconomic and ecological conditions facing society and graduates. Written by leading exponents of sustainability and sustainability education, this book brings together examples, insight, reflection and strategies from the experience of ten universities, widely recognised as leaders in developing sustainability in higher education. The book thus draws on a wealth of experience to provide reflective critical analysis of barriers, achievements, strategies and potential. It critically reviews the theory and practice involved in developing the sustainable university in a systemic and whole institutional manner, including the role of organisational learning. While remaining mindful of the challenges of the current climate, The Sustainable University maps out new directions and lines of research as well as offering practical advice for researchers, students and professionals in the fields of management, leadership, organisational change, strategy and curriculum development who wish to take this work further.

This book presents selected papers from the 7th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research (ICAER 2019), providing a comprehensive coverage encompassing all fields and aspects of energy in terms of generation, storage, and distribution. Themes such as optimization of energy systems, energy efficiency, economics, management, and policy, and the interlinkages between energy and environment are included. The contents of this book will be of use to researchers and policy makers alike.

Gender Gaps - Where Schools Still Fail Our Children directly addresses the conflict between the standards movement and the pursuit to educational equity - the most hotly debated topic in schools today and of concern to all parents of school-aged children. On the eve of the 21st century, what progress have we made? What gaps still need to be addressed? How are technological advances and profound shifts in school demographics changing the way we teach? Most importantly, do new approaches to teaching and learning benefits both girls and boys? Gender Gaps confirms that public schools are making progress toward equitable treatment of boys and girls. Nevertheless, high academic standards for all students cannot be realized without equity. Equity differs from equality in asking not whether girls and boys receive the same education but whether they receive the right education to achieve a shared standard of excellence.