Summer 2024
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Dear educators,

I hope you’ve been enjoying the summer! It has been great seeing many of you around the Madison area enjoying community events. Thank you for the opportunity to share what MGE’s school partnerships team has been doing this summer and to collaborate with you to advance energy education. We have enjoyed being part of your events and classrooms to provide energy information and resources to youth and families.

In this newsletter

Through our Earth Day and Arbor Day activities this spring, students learned about energy efficiency, conservation and sustainability. They discussed simple actions that can be taken every day to live more sustainably, such as conserving water and recycling/reusing single-use items. 

Coinciding with our Arbor Day activities, MGE released a short film, The Arborist, which tells the story of Brei, a certified field arborist who works with MGE. The film highlights Brei’s work with customers, from planting trees with elementary school students to coordinating line clearance work with customers. It’s the latest film from MGE’s Genre 2030 series, available online.  

As part of Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month this spring, MGE Customer Engagement Manager Mai Xiong distributed coloring books, "Saving Energy with Tou & Mai," to children at local grocery stores, workshops and schools. The books, which feature elements of Hmong culture, include characters that students color, cut out and place on a story cloth. A story cloth is a unique way members of our Hmong community tell their stories and help to preserve their cultural heritage.  

New Resource 

Our Pedal Power bike is one of our most popular educational tools. The bike uses students’ own mechanical energy through pedaling to run a blender, make spin art or power a light tower. This spring, we added a new Pedal Power bike to our mix of resources! The bike has an adjustable seat that can accommodate students as young as six years old as well as adults. If you would like to utilize the new Pedal Power bike for your classroom or youth activity, please contact us at eduservices@mge.com.   

Many of you are familiar with KEEP, Wisconsin’s K-12 Energy Education Program. KEEP offers a variety of ways for educators to “up their energy education game” with online training and educational kits. Learn about Renew Our Schools, a six-week energy conservation competition, Green Team mini grants and how you can nominate someone as Energy Educator of the Year. 

After keeping busy hosting high school students at MGE for our annual Career Ambassador program, we’re looking ahead to the MGE Día de Fútbol, a free, family-friendly event celebrating sport and community energy. Be sure to join us on Saturday, Sept. 21, at Breese Stevens Field in Madison. Our Energy Experts will be on hand with our Pedal Power bike for kids and energy-related resources for families. There will be soccer clinics, and Mexican soccer player Fernando Arce will be signing autographs! 

Our team looks forward to engaging with you during the next school year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Contact us by email at eduservices@mge.com to request resources or to share how MGE can better serve your energy education needs. 

In community, 

Mario Garcia Sierra and the MGE school partnerships team