Northwest Middle Energy Ambassadors Going to Washington

Teacher Iris Mudd with (left to right) Emily Williams, Isabel Loggins, Sara Harrison, Sarah Moore, Alina Galindo-Martinez, Ashley Evans, Kaylyn Reese (not pictured, Hayleigh Cass)

With the Energy Ambassadors Club at Northwest Middle School being named N.C. Junior School of the Year, eight girls will be heading to the nationals in Washington in June.

At the national level, the team is a Junior Rookie Finalist.

The National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project encourages and rewards student leadership and innovation by sponsoring a Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement. Schools participating in NEED projects are invited to submit portfolios of their energy activities. Exceptional teachers and students are recognized for their efforts at the state and national level and are invited to attend the NEED National Recognition Ceremonies being held June 22-25.

At Northwest, the projects that students did included:

• School-wide home survey of energy conservation, posters made and displayed throughout the school.
• Bookmarks they made and put in school libraries and the Rural Hall Library.
• Calculations of phantom loads with school electronic devices and devices at home.
• Calculations of kilowatt hours used by electrical devices.
• Presentation to the Rural Hall Boy Scouts.
• Calculations of energy efficiency of double-pane vs. single-pane windows.
• Weekly energy conservation messages to the Northwest students and faculty over our public-address system and on the TV monitors.  

More than 30 years ago, the NEED Project began as a one-day celebration of energy education when National Energy Education Day was recognized by a Joint Congressional Resolution. In the same year, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation stressing the need for comprehensive energy education in our school, a reduction of our dependence of fossil fuels and increasing use of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. Today, the NEED Project works to continue with the goal of reaching every appropriate classroom in the United States.

Members of the Northwest team are Emily Williams, Kaylyn Reese, Isabel Loggins, Sara Harrison, Ashley Evans, Alina Galindo-Martinez, Sarah Moore and Hayleigh Cass. The club sponsor is Iris Mudd, an eighth-grade science teacher at Northwest and the school system’s 2011-12 Teacher of the year. The N.C. A & T University sponsors were Elizabeth Keele and Ray Tesiero.