Report Card: Did our Energy Heroes Program Make the Grade?

Our Energy Heroes program reached 4,950 students in 180 classrooms across Seattle during the 2025-2026 school year! Since 2008, Energy Heroes has brought hands-on learning about electrical safety, renewable energy, and conservation directly to schools across our service area.

Not only are these relevant issues, but the topics align closely with science curriculum taught in schools. Workshop activities and materials encourage students to make connections to their own lives in an engaging and approachable way.

How do we know if Energy Heroes made the grade?

We utilize online surveys to ensure program goals are met, compile teacher feedback, and check in real time when program and material adjustments need to be made. As we start the new school year, we want to share what we learned and how we make sure our energy heroes pass with flying colors.

2025-2026 Report Card

Total Reach

4,950 students engaged
180 classrooms visited
36 schools served

Equity Accomplishments

47% of schools served met our equity criteria, which include schools with 40% or more of students receiving free or reduced meals, schools with more than 60% students of color, and schools with significant populations of English language learners.
Offered Spanish language version of the Renewables workshop, which was delivered to 275 students across 3 schools.
Translated teacher resources into five languages (Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali, Chinese, and Amharic), which included a plain language review of these materials.

Workshop Highlights

Electrical Safety Workshop (Grades 1-2)

Objective: Students learn how electricity works and how to be safe around electricity.
Delivery: Story-driven narrative involving movement and performance.
Reach: 900 students across 10 schools
Teacher testimonial: “Every year, the presenters are great, and the kids have so much fun learning important safety measures. We highly recommend this program to all of our colleagues.”
Lessons learned: This workshop is a top performer, with consistent feedback that it’s fun, age appropriate, and engaging. We will continue to deliver next school year.

Renewables Workshop (Grades 3-5)

Objective: Students learn about local renewable energy systems, the importance of energy conservation, and its connection to sustainability issues.
Delivery: Mix of presentation, hands-on activities, group games, and discussion.
Reach: Standard workshop: 1,075 students across 16 schools. Spanish language workshop: 275 students across three schools.
Teacher testimonial: “Students felt confident and enjoyed the presenters. Making connections with the resources available to different regions and what renewable resources were used more in one region or another based on access was a good connection for them.”
Lessons learned: Teachers valued the availability of the Renewables workshop in Spanish, which allows it to be scheduled in Spanish-language classes. We also learned that more take-home activities would be helpful.

Energy & Sustainability Workshop (Grades 6-8)

Objective: Students learn about local energy systems (with a strong focus on hydropower), what a power mix is, and the role we play as their electric utility.
Delivery: Presentation, critical thinking, small group collaboration, and designing power mixes to balance energy generation and sustainability.
Reach: 1,860 students across five schools
Teacher testimonial: “[What I found most effective about the workshop was] the kids coming to an understanding of the difference between community actions and personal actions. Also, that Seattle is a bit of an outlier in terms of how we generate power via hydro.”
Lessons learned: While overall response was positive, feedback showed students might not understand actions they can take in their everyday lives. Presenters made tweaks throughout the school year to adjust activities and provide more time for student reflection. Further adjustments will be made for the next school year.

Electrification & Equity Workshop (Grades: 9-12)

Objective: Students learn about the process of electrification, environmental justice, regional climate mitigation goals, and our role as their local electric utility.
Delivery: Students discuss examples of environmental inequity within Seattle and our region. As a group, they take on the role of a public utility, modeling decision-making processes to decide which strategies best support both electrification and equity.
Reach: 840 students across seven schools
Teacher testimonial: “I like the scenarios and really wish we had much more time to dig into the stakeholders needs and how they can be achieved.”
Lessons learned: While overall responses were positive, the decision-making activity needs to be more engaging and allow more time for student discussion and reflection.

Overall Evaluation

The Energy Heroes program continues to meet its goals of connecting school communities to the real-world work of their local utility and helping make personal connections to local sustainability issues that lead to thoughtful energy-conservation decisions and behavior change.

We continued to expand to new schools while still prioritizing historically under-resourced and marginalized school communities. Teachers shared that content was accessible and engaging for their students, appreciating the different activities offered and learning strategies used.

Room to Improve

Based on classroom observations and teacher feedback, we’ll study up to make a few improvements for the 2026-2027 school year:

Continue to prioritize highly interactive, hands-on learning experiences.
Identify opportunities for increased engagement and content exploration, as well as deeper connections to personal actions.
Develop a take-home activity for the Renewables workshop to support family connections.

These and other changes will help ensure our Energy Heroes program remains a valuable resource for the students and teachers we serve.

Be a Hero and Spread the Word

Want to recommend an Energy Heroes workshop to a teacher in our service area? Feel free to share the Educational Programs page on the City Light website to learn more about our offerings and submit a request to our educators.

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