Waukesha Co. Teachers Who Partnered with CUB Honored as Wisconsin Energy Educators of the Year

Posted: November 13, 2020 by Tom Content

Two Waukesha County teachers whose class partnered with CUB during its 40th Anniversary year have been awarded the 2020 Energy Educator of the Year award from the Wisconsin K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP).

CUB was thrilled to partner with teachers Danielle Chaussee and Kelly Holtzman and their Global Sustainability / Spanish class in the 2019-20 school year.

The OHS class worked with CUB in a number of ways, translating energy education materials into Spanish and helping launch CUB’s Spanish language page, cubwi.org/espanol.

The OHS students also served as ambassadors for CUB at the CUB 40th Anniversary Celebration in Madison in November 2019, and helped staff booths for CUB and marketing partner Evolution Marketing at the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council conference in December.

“The teachers strive to create learning experiences that immerse students in real-world issues and teach students ethical issues behind energy and conservation,” said Melissa Anders, Oconomowoc High School associate principal.

“They not only teach about energy in the scientific sense; they radiate an internal energy that comes from a selfless passion to serve others,” said Anders. “The Global Sustainability course is the first of its kind that I know of, and it is an innovative way of combining cultural responsiveness, service learning, science, business, and world language instruction.”

The Energy Educator of the Year Award was awarded Nov. 6 by KEEP during a special virtual ceremony with the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, held via Zoom. The energy education program, based at UW-Stevens Point, is supported by Alliant Energy, Madison Gas & Electric, We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service Corp., WPPI Energy and Xcel Energy.

CUB is proud of our partnership with OHS along with small business member Evolution Marketing. The partnership is continuing, virtually, with a new group of OHS students in the 2020-21 school year.