Teachers: Please sample clean energy lesson plans

This past year, the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization worked on a project to prepare students for jobs in clean energy.

The jobs are coming, or at least that's what studies appear to show. And I've got my fingers crossed.

We worked with a number of groups on the Valley Legacy Grant project to develop a series of programs meant to steer the region's residents toward high-growth sectors of industry. Four teams established by the grant worked to bring those programs into high school, college and adult education classrooms across the Valley's eight counties.

The effort, supported by a grant from Workforce Investment Act, has been challenging but a success, providing a model that can be built and expanded upon in subsequent years.

Clean energy for educators

I'm writing this post in part to shine some attention on the website we created as part of this project, www.wiasjvceo.com, and share it with teachers. My wife's an English teacher who tells me all the time how she appreciates good lesson plan ideas.

And that's what this has. Ideas. Lots of them. And they're all about clean energy, the environment, green work place trends and even climate change.

Clean energy education site adds video archive

We've updated our http://www.wiasjvceo.com/ site yet again -- this time adding a video archive.

The site involves the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization's effort to bring clean energy information to students, teachers and job seekers and help prepare the Valley for a potential green invasion. Green as in economic development, that is.

On the site, we've included links to wind, solar, energy efficiency and even a video by our former co-worker at the Fresno Bee, Tracy Correa. She now works for PG&E, and the video is all about the new solar systems recently unveiled near the teeming metropolis of Five Points in rural Fresno County.

So give it a look. Pass it along. The site has all sorts of information. We've downloaded and linked to white papers, studies and reports. Our document library is growing every day.

We've also got a list of clean energy companies that operate in the area and a huge number of job search links.

Green jobs: Valley Legacy Project releases video on achievements

The Valley Legacy Project is meant to get the San Joaquin Valley's K-12 system, higher education and workforce investment boards working together to better prepare people for occupations with high-growth potential.

Those include agribusiness, biotech, water technology, renewable energy, manufacturing and supply-chain management.

Of course, at the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization, we care most about clean energy. We created a website, www.wiasjvceo.com, that is meant to be a one-stop shop for those looking for jobs or just to find out more about green energy.

The Valley Legacy video was presented at the annual California Partnership for the San Joaquin annual summit Oct. 7 in Bakersfield. It is short but has impact.

The project came about through a coalition of groups and great work from participating students, teachers, WIBs, the private sector and others.