The project started in November 2008 and was officially completed in February 2013.

The "Energy education for sustainable energy supply and use" project (energy education for short) pursued the following objectives:

• To define and transport "energy education" as an innovative multi- and interdisciplinary educational mission,
• to develop and test teaching concepts for energy education for all relevant subjects in cooperation with the relevant subject didactics, linking scientific, economic and social perspectives, and
• to anchor energy education in the long term, for example by integrating it into school programmes and state-wide core curricula, using close co-operation with the state school authorities, with the training and further education of teachers in all types and levels of school and with regional companies and institutions.

These goals were achieved in full. Eleven sub-projects in seven subject didactics and four overarching sub-projects (coordination, events and further training, integration and web portal) dealt with the development of concepts for the integration of energy education during the project period. As a result of these concepts, teaching concepts and materials, teacher training courses, modules for teacher training, excursion concepts, events and publications were developed(247 publications or theses and 166 products (teaching materials, training courses, concepts, flyers, posters, guidelines, synopses, quizzes, etc.)).

The following working definition of energy education was developed in accordance with the first objective mentioned in order to refine the activities: "Energy education in schools is understood as the totality of all educational efforts and processes that support children and young people in developing certain knowledge, skills, behavioural dispositions and attitudes. These should enable them to actively engage with the conditions and evaluation of our energy supply and our usage behaviour by incorporating the economic, sociological and political, historical and philosophical, legal, technical, ecological and ethical dimensions. This should take place at an individual, company, social and global level. Energy education also has a career-orientation component and should broaden career choices with regard to alternative career paths. Energy education should enable teachers to support pupils in developing this knowledge, skills and dispositions. This ability of teachers should be an essential qualification component of teacher training in Oldenburg."

Through intensive collaboration with teachers in the so-called teacher sets, an intensive exchange took place between school and university. The concepts developed were trialled and evaluated with pupils. The content was sustainably incorporated into school profiles and school programmes at regional schools.

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches were trialled through the networking of the seven subject didactics in the project. This work resulted, among other things, in an interdisciplinary book on wind energy, in which all subject didactics dealt with the topic of wind (book was published in 2012).

The energy education project and the concept behind it were presented to schools, teachers and the interested public through intensive public relations work with numerous events and event formats and innovatively presented and transported with new concepts and ideas. These included the kick-off event, an energy fair for schoolchildren "Energieberufe LIVE!", further training as part of the educational week or the further training programme of the Oldenburg Teacher Training Centre, participation in the Ideas Expo in Hanover, participation in the "Long Night of Science" in Oldenburg (2009 and 2011), the organisation of panel discussions, action days with schools, the organisation of two symposia and much more. The media showed great interest in the topic of energy education, with the events reaching television, radio and regional newspapers. Due to the nuclear accident in Fukushima during the project period, the topic of energy education became even more important, so that interest in the products of the project increased significantly during the project period.

During the project, intensive contact was established with schools, ministries, educational institutions and regional energy companies. Many regional companies showed interest in the Energieparcours-Nordwest.de, a programme of extracurricular learning opportunities in the region on the topic of energy use. The course was prominently recognised as a UN Decade project in 2012. Together with energy companies, schools and ministries, an address database of over 1,500 entries was created, which was addressed to specific target groups. By participating in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs' energy education working group, ideas for improving energy education in Lower Saxony's curricula were put forward. We also contributed to the report of the Lower Saxony Climate Protection Commission.

Furthermore, the conception and establishment of the "Interdisciplinary Energy" lecture series developed a module in the area of specialisation at the University of Oldenburg, which is now offered regularly in the summer semester and whose basic framework is based on the topics of the energy education project. This gives student teachers (i.e. future teachers) the opportunity to deal with the topic of energy in the classroom from multiple perspectives through the energy education project. This module has explicitly anchored energy education in initial teacher training, while implicit anchoring takes place through the fact that the university actors prominently address energy education in their didactic courses.

The results of the project have been made permanent on the project's web portal(www.energiepoprtal.uni-oldenburg.de). Among other things, reports on the project activities, teaching materials for download, excursion options and much more can be found there. The establishment of the "Energy Education" unit at the University of Oldenburg's Didactic Centre means that energy education will remain an important topic even after the end of the project. The centre will continue to pursue the goals set out above and supplement its activities with research in the field.

In conclusion, it can be said that the Energy Education project approved by the state provided the initial spark for energy education activities, which will continue in full after the end of the project. Energy education has become a profile element of teacher training in Oldenburg.