St. Luke's School Students Participate in NEED Program

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Students at St. Luke’s School in Barrington recently completed a 10-week NEED (National Energy Education Development) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Fourteen students in grades 5, 6 and 7 participated. The program was facilitated by St. Luke’s parent and Grade 2 teacher at Kent Heights School Jennifer Clark, with the assistance of St. Luke’s Grade 5 teacher Jeannine Fuller. Weekly discussion topics included wind energy, solar energy, heat energy (friction), composting, energy conservation and all other forms of renewable and non-renewable energy. The highlight of the program was a field trip to Smithfield High School, in conjunction with other participating schools, for an energy carnival which included 14 different stations related to all of the topics the students had studied during the program, as well as PowerPoint presentations related to the program which helped them prepare for what happened when they returned to school. St. Luke’s was allowed to take all of the carnival material back to school where six of the most popular NEED carnival stations were recreated by the participants. Each grade at St. Luke’s then took a turn being guided through each station by the SLS NEED participants. The teachers and students were delighted with the opportunity to be exposed to this important topic and discussion. As a result, it is expected that participation will be even higher next year. There is an annual NEED conference in Washington, D.C., for students and teachers which might become part of the program offering in future years.