K-12

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences

Produced by the Encyclopedia on Earth in partnership with the Climate Literacy Network, this detailed report discussed climate science literacy, informed climate decisions, climate changes, and other topics of interest for classroom use. Download this free PDF at www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_Literacy:_The_Essential_Principles_of_Climate_Sciences/.

Students Leading the Way

The Alliance to Save Energy produced this free online document on Green Schools participants throughout California. It has 40 examples from 2007-2008 of how students learned about energy, saved energy in their schools, and took the energy efficiency message into their homes and communities. View the publication at http://ase.org/section/_audience/educators .

Play a Greater Part

Get your students involved in sustainability projects. This web site is designed to bring together people with research projects in sustainability with others who have the time and interest to help perform the research. It helps connect post-secondary students with an interest in sustainability to professionals who need help with a project regarding sustainability. The site is available to all types of organizations (e.g. business, government, non-profits) and the public for viewing and submitting projects. View it at www.playagreaterpart.org/.

Higher Education

Teaming Up for Campus Sustainability

This is Harvard University's free online guide to developing a Green Living Program or Student Internship program.  It takes you through the steps of creating frameworks to organize students and staff to achieve campus sustainability. The Harvard programs have helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decreased waste, conserved water, increased recycling, and increased purchasing of environmentally preferred products. The manual is available at www.greencampus.harvard.edu/green-teams/.

The 2009 Chill Out! Winners

"Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming" is a competition sponsored annually by the National Wildlife Federation to recognize college and university innovation in solving global warming by showcasing campus-based climate action programs. This year's winners are showcased in a webcast on April 15, but you can get a copy of the webcast for viewing after that date by signing up at www.nwf.org/campusecology/chillout/broadcast/cfm/.

America's Greenest Campus Competition

This is a nationwide contest among colleges to reduce the carbon footprints of the students, faculty, staff and alumni. Get as many people affiliated with your school as you can to reduce their carbon footprint by October 5 and you might win prizes ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. The competition is sponsored by SmartPower and the U.S. Department of Energy, and uses advanced carbon tracking and reduction software to measure your success. Results are tracked on the America's Greenest Campus web site, and get all the information at www.americasgreenestcampus.com/.

All Levels

Virtual Conference and Expo on Green Schools and Universities

This free online program on green/sustainable practices in America's education institutions, presented by American School & University, will be held on June 24 from 10:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. EST. You'll have the opportunity to learn about green design and planning, green buildings, and green cleaning in education sessions, interaction with booth personnel, and by networking with your colleagues.  For more information and to register, visit http://asumag.com/green_virtual_conference/main/?cid=gsupromo/.

Your Ecological Footprint

Earth Day Network has a fascinating online quiz that measures your Ecological Footprint - how much biologically productive land and sea is used by a given population or activity. It reports on how much of the biological capacity of the planet is demanded by human activities or population. It will let your students see the impact their lifestyle is making on the planet. The quiz is available at http://earthday.net/footprint/flash.html .

Wind Energy Blog

The American Wind Energy Association launched the "Into the Wind" blog on April to provide up-to-date information on wind power generation. Check out this site for the latest news stories, activities and technology developments in the wind industry. It's online at www.awea.org/blog .

Home Energy Saver

A web-based do-it-yourself energy audit tool offered free online by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, this is an interesting activity for a group to work on in the classroom or for your students to do at home with their families to find the best ways to save energy in their homes. By answering a series of questions on the home, its design and location, family energy use and other topics, the program provides a comparison of energy use with other homes in the area and suggested energy upgrades to their house.  The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and lets users estimate how much energy and money can be saved and how much emissions can be reduced by various energy-saving improvements. It has been updated to include a measurement of the home's carbon footprint. It is available at http://hes.lbl.gov/.

Greenhouse Gas Calculator

Did you know that if a typical home had all of its incandescent light bulbs replaced with compact fluorescents, it would reduce lighting electricity use by about 75 percent and after five years, this savings would equate to saving more than 10,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, conserving 530 gallons of gasoline, saving 11 barrels of oil, planting 120 tree seedlings, or recycling 1.6 tons of waste? This free online calculator from EPA helps you discuss greenhouse gas savings in familiar terms such as driving cars, powering homes or recycling waste. Visit http://epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html .

Appliance Cost Calculator

This easy-to-use calculator from Florida Power & Light lets your students quickly calculate how much energy their home appliances use. They just select the appliance from a drop-down list, estimate the average hours per day the appliance is used and how many days per month, and they can get the estimated mlonthly appliance cost. www.fpl.com/residential/savings/energy_advisor/top_10_tips/top_10_tips.shtml .

Simplified Residential Solar Hot Water System Calculator

Though this provides information on solar water heating systems used in Florida only, your students will learn general information on the energy, cost and environmental savings potential of solar water heating systems on homes, and they can vary the input to see how location and family size affect solar savings. They can also change many of the assumptions used in the calculations to see different results. www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/consumer/solar_hot_water/homes/calculator/ .

Energy Usage Calculator

This is another easy-to-use home energy calculator. Students input the number of listed appliances in their home and they will see the estimated monthly kWh usage and cost. www.consumerspower.org/home_energy/billestimator.php .