The project began in November 2008 and the official end of the project occurred in February 2013.

The project ‘Energy Education for a Sustainable Energy Supply and Use’ (Energiebildung for short) pursued the following objectives:

• To define and promote “Energy Education” as an innovative, multi- and interdisciplinary educational mission,
• to develop and test teaching concepts for energy education across all relevant subjects in collaboration with the respective subject-specific pedagogies, whilst integrating scientific, economic and social perspectives; and
• to firmly establish energy education, amongst other things, to embed it sustainably through integration into school programmes and state-wide core curricula, utilising close co-operation with state education authorities, with teacher training and further education across all school types and levels, and with regional businesses and institutions.

These objectives were fully achieved. Eleven sub-projects across seven subject-specific didactics and four overarching sub-projects (coordination, events and professional development, integration and web portal) focused, throughout the project period, on the development of concepts for integrating energy education. Based on these concepts, teaching frameworks and materials, teacher training programmes, modules for teacher training, field trip concepts, events and publications (247 publications and final theses, and 166 products ( teaching materials, professional development programmes, concepts, leaflets, posters, guidelines, synopses, quizzes, etc.)).

To refine these activities in line with the first objective mentioned, the following working definition of energy education was developed: “Energy education in schools is understood to mean the totality of all educational efforts and processes designed to support children and young people in developing specific knowledge, skills, behavioural dispositions and attitudes. These are intended to enable them to actively engage with the conditions and assessment of our energy supply and our consumption behaviour, by taking into account the economic, sociological and political, historical and philosophical, legal, technical, ecological and ethical dimensions. This should take place at the individual, organisational, societal and global levels. Energy education also has a career-orientation component and is intended to broaden career choices with regard to alternative career paths. Through energy education, teachers are to be empowered to support pupils in developing this knowledge, these skills and these dispositions. This capacity on the part of teachers is to be a key component of teacher training in Oldenburg.”

Through close collaboration with teachers in the so-called ‘teacher sets’, there was an intensive exchange between schools and the university. The concepts developed in this way were tested and evaluated with pupils. The content was incorporated on a lasting basis into the school profiles and programmes of regional schools.

By linking the seven subject-specific teaching methodologies within the project, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches were tested. This work culminated, amongst other things, in a cross-curricular book on wind energy, in which all subject-specific teaching methodologies addressed the topic of wind (the 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 involving numerous events and event formats, and were innovatively showcased and communicated using new concepts and ideas. These included the kick-off event, an energy fair for pupils entitled “Energieberufe LIVE!”, training courses as part of the pedagogical week or the training programme of the Oldenburg Teacher Training Centre, participation in the Ideen-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 staging of two symposia and much more. There was considerable media interest in the topic of energy education, with the events receiving coverage on television, radio and in regional newspapers. The nuclear accident in Fukushima during the project’s duration meant that the topic of energy education took on even greater significance, resulting in a sharp rise in interest in the project’s outputs even whilst the project was still ongoing.

During the project period, close contact was established with schools, ministries, educational institutions and regional energy companies. Many regional companies expressed an interest in ‘Energieparcours-Nordwest.de’, a network of extracurricular learning venues in the region focusing on energy use. In 2012, the ‘Parcours’ was prominently recognised as a UN Decade project. In collaboration with energy companies, schools and ministries, a contact database of over 1,500 entries was established, which was targeted at specific groups. Through participation in the Energy Education Working Group of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, ideas for improving energy education in Lower Saxony’s curricula were put forward. Furthermore, the project contributed to the report by the Lower Saxony Climate Protection Commission.

Furthermore, through the design and establishment of the ‘Interdisciplinary Energy’ seminar series – a module within the area of specialisation at the University of Oldenburg – a course has been developed which is now offered regularly during the summer semester and is based on the themes of the energy education project. Consequently, through the energy education project, teacher training students (i.e. future teachers) have the opportunity to engage with the topic of energy in the classroom from multiple perspectives. This module has achieved the explicit integration of energy education into initial teacher training; implicit integration occurs through university staff prominently addressing energy education in their subject-specific teaching methodology courses.

The project’s results have been made permanently available on the project’s web portal (www.energiepoprtal.uni-oldenburg.de). There, visitors will find, amongst other things, reports on project activities, teaching materials available for download, excursion opportunities and much more. With the establishment of the ‘Energy Education’ unit within the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Oldenburg, the topic of energy education will remain a key focus even after the end of the project. The unit continues to pursue the objectives set out above and complements these activities with research in this field.

In conclusion, it can be said that the ‘Energy Education’ project, funded by the state, served as a catalyst for energy education activities, which will continue in full force even after the end of the project. Energy education has become a defining feature of teacher training in Oldenburg.