Metro-area teachers became students Thursday at a program designed to help them learn how to instruct kids about energy.
As the teachers took in new information about energy sources and natural-gas vehicles and participated in hands-on activities, the voices of their young students popped into their minds, prompting them to ask more questions.
“We’re asking a lot of questions, just like our kids will. If you do it yourself, it’s easier to teach it too,” said Joyce Bustamante, third- and fourth-grade teacher at Stargate School in Adams 12 Five Star Schools.
The one-day workshop held at the Denver Zoo was organized by the National Energy Education Development, an education promotion organization funded by Encana Oil and Gas.
Curriculum for the day included learning about energy conservation and how traditional energy sources, such as oil and natural gas, are being used in new ways, such as using compressed natural gas to fuel vehicles.
Workshop instructor Vernon Kimball offered teachers hands-on projects and games that can be used help teach the topics to kids. A retired teacher who used the program’s materials during the last years of his 34-year career at Bayfield High School in southwestern Colorado, he said he’s had time to test the activities.
“Without hands-on activities, science doesn’t have a lot of meaning for them,” Kimball said.
One of the activities demonstrated was a debate game, in which students study different energy sources and then debate the benefits and disadvantages of each.
“We would go all 90 minutes, and then some of the students were begging me to continue the game the next day,” he said.
The right teaching resources can help keep kids engaged in studying the science of energy, Kimball and other teachers agreed.
“They’ve grown up hearing about it,” said Bonnie Becker, a fifth-grade teacher at Parker Core Knowledge Charter School. “It’s just natural for them that the world is changing.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1638 or yrobles@denverpost.com
