Developing Energy Curriculum

Discover Energy Curriculum

In 1975, Margie Harris, the Ecology Center's environmental education specialist, compiled existing research and wrote a 150-page teacher guide entitled "Discover Energy Series" under contract with the Ann Arbor Public School system. The series consisted of five booklets with innovative approaches to teaching the energy issue to students between seventh and twelfth grades. In 1975, the Center gave the guide to local teachers for free. The following year, the guide was marketed extensively and purchased by teachers and school systems across the country. 

Home Energy Workshops

In 1977, with funding from the Ann Arbor Community Development Block Grant Program, the Ecology Center offered free workshops on home energy conservation, which they developed to aid low-income families. The workshops, which were coordinated with assistance from Sunstructures, Inc., a local architecture firm, showed participants how to weatherstrip doors and windows, how to save on gas and electric bills, and what to look for when buying insulation. In 1978, the Center held nine home energy conservation workshops with approximately two hundred residents in total. The following year, the Center received a grant from the City of Ann Arbor to continue the home energy workshops in the Burns Park, Near Northwest Side, Old West Side and Northside neighborhoods during the chill of November and December 1979. The program taught participantsnot only how to identify home weatherization needs but also how to make the necessary improvements themselves. The Ecology Center has remained dedicated to developing  long-term energy conservation plans, recognizing the "environmental, economic, social and political beliefs of the energy conservation.