Students put on Energy Fair in Long Grove
One of only 40 school districts awarded an Energizing Student Potential grant, students in Kildeer-Countryside Elementary District 96 made the most of it on Friday by putting on an Energy Fair.
The ESP grant is sponsored by the Exelon Foundation, ComEd, Nicor Gas, Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas and BP America, partnering with the National Energy Education Development Project.
Last fall, Woodlawn Middle School science teachers Nino Alvarez and Michelle Nadulek got the grant to run the STEM-focused program for fifth through eighth graders. It combines what kids are learning in school with real-world energy company resources, allowing them to teach Next Generation science standards.
Forty schools in the Illinois/Indiana customer regions were chosen.
Friday's Energy Fair featured a multi-grade collaborative project, where sixth-graders engineered thermal houses, seventh-graders wired them for light and eighth-graders built wind turbines to generate electricity to power them.
Students and staff also will experienced a schoolwide blackout as part of the fair.