Frequently Asked Questions
What's funded, what's not?
What's been funded in the past?
What's not?
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What’s funded, what’s not?
Classroom Energy Innovation GrantsTM fund creative classroom teaching ideas that focus on energy or energy efficiency. We know teachers possess the power to engage the minds of their students. Providing simply better tools and resources to teachers turns innovative ideas into excitement and learning for multitudes of students.
We encourage teachers from all subject areas to challenge students about energy and its impact on our future. From studying climate change in high school statistics to learning about who created the light bulb in kindergarten and from understanding the importance of fuel diversity in any science class to depicting energy in the art room, the opportunities are endless.
What’s been funded in the past?
Illegal Trash Dumping: A middle school teacher wanted to raise students’ awareness on issues surrounding illegal dumping of trash such as health hazards to people, plants and animals, and to educate students on the different products that are recyclable, and to teach students proper disposal of trash.
What’s not funded?
The following types of requests are not eligible for funding:
- Teacher training or salaries. Requests for teacher certifications, training, or for salaries fall beyond our funding guidelines. This includes stipends for substitute teachers.
- Before- or after-school programs. The intent of Classroom Energy Innovation Grants is to support teachers and their students during core school hours, not for extracurricular activities such as before or after school day care, clubs, or other activities scheduled outside of core school hours.
- Prepackaged curriculum. Classroom Energy Innovation Grants are centered on the principle of ingenuity. Funding requests that are largely comprised of prepackaged curriculum or pre-developed software lack the thread of innovation we promote. For example, a teacher hoping to provide real-life applications for science would be more successful at receiving a grant by creating a collection of commonly used items, instead of purchasing several copies of “ACME’s Science Kits”.
- Equipment requests not associated with a creative teaching idea. We often receive questions about equipment, such as, “Do you fund computers?” The answer is, “it depends.” As you can see from the examples we have provided, Classroom Energy Innovation Grants certainly have provided equipment through guitars, computers, cameras, scales, etc. What all of these winning grants have in common is that the grant was centered on an idea that came alive. In the past we have received requests to replace overhead projectors, Smartboards or other teaching aids that have broken or are needed; these requests were denied because they were not centered on an innovative idea.
- Field trip funding requests exceeding 25 percent of the total amount requested. We recognize that school travel budgets have shrunk over the years. A grant request can include up to 25 percent of the total amount requested for travel. Keep in mind, the request must be centered on an idea, not on a field trip. In other words, the field trip should be one of several methods used to supplement the teaching idea.
- One-time events. Classroom Energy Innovation Grants are designed and developed for classroom application. Though we have funded projects that may have culminated in a poetry reading, school play, or garden harvest, we will not fund requests for special events only.
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