Sustainability and Renewable Energy Education: Children of the Next Generation

Creating a clean energy future is a worldwide goal. At present, world energy consumption relies heavily on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable and eventually finite, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These resources have already become too expensive and too environmentally damaging. The importance of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies is constitutively rising. How should children be taught about renewable energy? What is air pollution and how does harming the natural habitat affect us? Students from the Holon Institute of Technology participate in the course “Green ambassadors” which looks at these questions by integrating practical work. As part of the course requirements, students are asked to conduct lessons within the topic of preserving the environment to fifth and sixth grade pupils in the Arabic elementary school “El Omariya” situated in the city of Ramla. During meetings held within the school, the students taught the pupils, via games and activities, what renewable energy means, how to turn waste into a resource, what energy conversion and renewable energy mean, etc. In order to illustrate the topics studied by the pupils, the students used a moveable laboratory containing demonstrations, experiments and creative activities. Environmental education, with an emphasis on renewables, is the focus of this chapter.