ATE Impacts 2020-2021

CREATE Energy Institutes Improve Content Knowledge CREATE's mission is to advance the field of renewable energy by championing cutting-edge renewable energy education programs. CREATE works with faculty, providing professional development, curriculum and instructional materials, establishing academic partnerships with industry, promoting renewable energy careers, and addressing the rapidly evolving knowledge and skills required by renewable energy technicians. CREATE Renewable Energy Institutes provide professional development for high school and two-year college educators. The CREATE Energy Institutes blend a combination of applied academic content with hands-on technical experience. Participants work with full-scale renewable energy systems and with smaller bench-scale activities that are more easily replicated with students. Sixty-five teachers participated in the 2019 CREATE Summer Energy Institutes held in Dover, DE; Normal, IL; Shoreline, WA; and Madison, WI. Collectively, these instructors will teach more than 8,800 students in the upcoming year. One hundred percent of the participants reported that as a result of the workshop they are more likely to include renewable energy concepts in their courses. In anonymous evaluations the institutes were praised as "an amazing gift of lesson plans, resources and ideas" and as a "fantastic learning opportunity!" Pre-Institute 54% Post-Institute 82% n = 66 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% CREATE Energy Institute participants learn about proper use of personal protective equipment for electrical safety 21