Regional Youth Policy Summit on Energy Efficiency

 in California and Climate Status Investigations

Teacher Training Program

For the first time, The Keystone Center will bring two of its signature education programs together under the same roof in Sacramento, California! Keystone’s Youth Policy Summits (YPS) provide students with a transformational education experience that provides unique public policy mediation and stakeholder engagement training on a contemporary, science-intensive policy issue. Their experience provides them with the research, negotiation, problem solving, and policy analysis skills they will need to be successful in their future endeavors as scientists, lawyers, doctors and business professionals.

Keystone’s CSI: Climate Status Investigations teacher program provides educators with the training and tools to introduce the topic of global climate change with students with a non-biased, inquiry-based, interdisciplinary curriculum. The CSI curriculum leads students through an exploration of the many aspects of global climate change. In 2008, The Keystone Center conducted CSI trainings in different regions of the country, including Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, New Mexico and Colorado.

In 2009, in partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy and the American Petroleum Institute, Keystone Science School will conduct a Youth Policy Summit for 30-40 college students, who will focus on the subject of improving energy efficiency in California. Participating students will be asked to negotiate consensus-based recommendations to be shared with Members of Congress, the Governor and California state legislature, as well as business and NGO sector leaders.

At the same time, Keystone will partner with the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership to offer a CSI teacher training program in for 30-40 middle and high school educators from the region. These educators will reach approximately 4,500 students per year. Keystone provides educators with strategies to identify and remove bias in order to facilitate student inquiry. The CSI curriculum incorporates effective and innovative ideas, activities and methods including conflict resolution, role-playing, small group work, and lab activities. CSI addresses national standards from multiple disciplines. Further, educators also have the option of receiving one graduate-level credit at minimal cost. With our active hands-on lessons and labs, teachers and students alike will never be bored!

The Energy Efficiency Youth Policy Summit is particularly timely. California’s climate change mandate to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 will require large investments in energy efficiency technologies. It is imperative that students and educators explore and better understand energy efficiency opportunities to address this issue. Possibilities include reducing electricity consumption across industrial, commercial and residential sectors, including building technologies, transportation, and electricity. All these choices will result in fewer carbon emissions to the atmosphere, but every choice also has economic and social implications, and different parts of the state may be affected differently, and choose different energy and technology options based on existing resources and opportunities. Students and educators will examine options to reduce greenhouse gases, while balancing political, legal, economic, technological, environmental and social factors.