Developing a best practices manual for the U.S. Department of Energy ‘Wind for Schools Project’

Abstract

The Development of a Best Practices Manual for the U.S. Department of Energy's ‘Wind for Schools Project’ is an effort to provide the necessary research and data to make the completion of a ‘Best Practices Manual’ possible. The ‘Best Practices Manual’ will be used to help with the future development of Wind for Schools Projects nationally. The Wind for Schools Project was developed in 2005; currently 11 states are actively participating. As the Wind for Schools Project developed, various approaches and techniques were used to meet the goals of the program. A ‘Best Practices Manual’ will serve as a repository of successful strategies and approaches employed by the program. The development of the ‘Best Practices Manual’ focused on the research needed to understand the Wind for Schools Project; this included background on the U.S. Education System, a comprehensive study of the Wind for Schools Structure, a study of each 11 state programs, defining a best practice, the development and dispersion of a survey for the Wind for Schools Facilitators and Wind Application Center Directors, and a final outline for the ‘Best Practices Manual’. This effort is an attempt to pull together all the necessary research for the ‘Best Practices Manual’; which will in turn present generally-accepted, informally-standardized methods and techniques that have been developed to accomplish the three main goals of Wind for Schools.