in 2023 Teachers Can Empower Them.
Dear fellow teachers,
After students take their APES exam teachers should reward them with real empowerment to immediately and meaningfully apply their learning to achieve results—because they deserve it and it’s needed more than ever.
Teachers no doubt already have plans for students post-test, but perhaps because of changes during Covid there is a new opportunity—and a necessity—to empower students to be actual doers of environmental improvements before we hit summer.
Over their time with you, students have learned:
the scientific practices of inquiry, experimentation and data analysis
the impacts of land, water, and resource use
the principles of sustainability and conservation
Let students leverage this knowledge to help ease their family's economic burden.
The utility cost burden is up for families, especially black families.
The pandemic is worsening the burden many families feel in trying to pay their utility bills. According to Google’s Nest Power Project, before the pandemic, one in four American families struggled to pay their electricity bills.
According to the Electric Power Research Institute, consumers with children schooling at home reported the highest incidence of higher bills and increased energy use; 31 percent of these consumers indicate higher energy bills. The California Energy Commission residential energy use by customers increased by 8.9% to 12.4% for 2020 year-to-date compared to the same time period last year.
According to a 2019 report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), this burden disproportionately affects the students we know are already low-resource or at-risk: "24% of all American families carry a high energy burden—defined as spending more than 6% of household income on their energy bills—and that proportion is higher still among low income, African American, and elderly households. The reality behind this statistic is that 24% of Americans are living in dangerously warm or cold homes every day, and making tough choices about whether to pay their energy bills or buy food for their families. High energy burdens have also been linked to respiratory health problems, increased stress, and utility disconnections" (ACEEE, 2019).
The findings by ACEEE are backed by a just-released working paper out of the Energy Institute at the UC Berkeley Haas Business School. The author, Eva Lyubich, writes in her paper The Race Gap in Residential Energy Expenditures that even when controlling for household size, city of residence and income, a persistent inequity exists in which black households pay more for energy.
Paying more for energy while earning less means that black families are nearly twice as likely as white families (56% vs. 27%) to report that they have faced challenges in paying their energy bills or keeping their home at a livable temperature, according to the Energy Information Administration.
And its not just energy bills. The Alliance for Water Efficiency recently released a report on affordability, using data from Detroit, demonstrating not only the high burden of water costs for residents, but importantly the role water conservation can play to address this burden.
Your AP Environmental Science students are uniquely equipped to lead in this effort — if we empower them.
Water and energy professionals need knowledgeable, committed resource users.
Many utilities are acting to assist families who in these times are, no doubt, facing additional challenges paying their water and energy bills. However, traditional outreach methods have been canceled. Heading into summer, when water usage spikes (think lawn watering) and energy use rises (think air conditioning), community educators would normally be at farmers markets and garden shows educating the public about the need for wise use of natural resources. Challenged by a social distancing world, they are hustling to reach residents digitally or through bill inserts.
According to the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council, energy efficiency has been hit the hardest among all other sectors of clean energy, with about 70,000 unemployed workers. That’s two-thirds of clean energy unemployment filings. In other words, in a time of pandemic, there is an increasing need for families to make basic efficiency upgrades themselves because installation programs in which hired workers come into the home have been scaled back.
As utility and clean energy professionals work hard to meet families where they are, our students can begin to fill in the gap, putting the knowledge they have gained in their AP Environmental Science classrooms—virtual or not—to work.
In times of social distancing, students can improve their homes when others can’t.
Our water-and-energy-literate students can make efficiency upgrades, often at low up-front cost, in their homes to achieve long-term savings. This isn’t simply a feel-good, pat-on-the-back type of exercise for students. They will likely find ways to significantly reduce their home's water and energy consumption, saving resources and dollars, and gain practical experience for future employment as investments in the efficiency economy grow. Current estimates show that water leaks account for an average of 14% of water used in homes. Finding them is a real-world investigation that students can do, and fixing them often does not require a professional.
Build efficiency and empowerment into post-test learning.
STEMhero allows students to immediately apply course content and scientific practices, especially data analysis, in a relevant and personally helpful way. Both the flexible format and content are an ideal fit for the weeks following the AP test next year (it’s also available over the summer, and in the fall too!).
STEMhero is not more computer study guide work. It is...
Hands-on (sure, it’s a buzzword, but it’s accurate in this case): Students will gather and analyze their own water or energy usage data while implementing actions or technologies to decrease consumption.
Accessible: Students don't need any extra tools because they are using the technology already at their home or apartment building—their utility meters. And, the curriculum is accessible and ready-to-go for distance learning.
Customizable: The curriculum can be tailored to fill 2 weeks to 4 weeks and includes multiple final assessment options. Students can communicate their final findings in a lab-report style written piece or an auditory/video presentation.
For teachers who want it, STEMhero will work with local utility partners to fund the program across the district. STEMhero also works with local utility partners to directly link families with assistance rebates and advanced online leak detection portals that can enhance students’ efficiency actions and data collection.
Students need to put this year’s knowledge to work. Their families need their cost burden lifted. Utility and energy professionals need knowledgeable representatives in every home. With STEMhero, your students can meet these needs and achieve true empowerment during uncertain times.