South Carolina Educators Complete Santee Cooper’s Energy Educators Institute
August 12, 2008
MONCKS CORNER, S.C. — Santee Cooper treated more than 70 teachers to an “education vacation” this summer, as part of the 20th annual Energy Educators Institute series at the Wampee Conference Center in Pinopolis, S.C.
Educators participating in this graduate level course receive planning materials and gain knowledge about the production of electricity and the challenges of renewable energy. This was illustrated through field experiences and tours of Santee Cooper facilities. Santee Cooper held three institutes this summer.
“Teachers enjoy hands-on activities just as much as their students do,” said Tscharner Lord, a curriculum facilitator at Manning Primary School. “If we are able to better understand and become excited about the material, we can better relay the lessons to our students.”
Each of the four-day institutes included trips to Santee Cooper’s Jefferies Generating Station, the Old Santee Canal Park and industrial customer Alcoa-Mt. Holly, hands-on learning activities and unit planning sessions. Santee Cooper experts addressed topics such as energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy, environmental resources, power generation, transmission, distribution, electrical safety, water quality and utility economics.
“The Energy Educators Institute is a unique, multi-faceted program,” said Barbara Allen, Santee Cooper’s director of educational programs. “Not only does it provide classroom resources, but the teachers also have the opportunity to network with one another as well as Santee Cooper employees while developing engaging standards-based lesson plans.”
Linda Thompson, a middle school math and science teacher at Sims Junior High School, said that she was excited that she could relate all of her experiences at the Institute to her classroom. “The canoe trip at the Old Santee Canal can be applied to a lesson about force and motion, and our boat ride through the locks relates to gravitational forces,” said Thompson.
“Santee Cooper has promoted conservation for more than four decades, and that, along with our support of public education, helps us be the state’s leading resource for improving the lives of South Carolinians,” said Lonnie Carter, Santee Cooper president and chief executive officer. “In these Energy Educators Institutes, Santee Cooper equips teachers with the knowledge and tools they need to teach students how electricity is made and how it should be conserved. That’s an important lesson to learn in your formative years.”
Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility and provides power to more than 162,000 customers in Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties and water to 136,000 consumers in Berkeley and Dorchester counties. The utility also generates the power distributed by the state’s 20 electric cooperatives to more than 685,000 customers in all 46 counties. Santee Cooper is the largest provider of electricity in South Carolina. More than 2 million South Carolinians receive their power directly or indirectly from Santee Cooper. For more information, visit www.SanteeCooper.com. For information on how Santee Cooper lives green and how you can go green with Santee Cooper, visit www.SanteeCooperGreen.com.
