E.ON: Energy Experience

The challenge

E.ON is committed to promoting responsible energy usage and climate change awareness. It had the ambition of developing a programme that would help to create an energy-literate generation. The resources needed to:

  • inform young people aged 5-16 about different energy sources and their relative merits, energy production, distribution, consumption and saving
  • present in an engaging manner the information that young people need to make informed decisions and become responsible consumers of energy
  • be able to be delivered independently by teachers and also by E.ON employee volunteers.

Our approach

We created the Energy Experience, an interactive resource for Science, Geography and Citizenship. The resource is split up into four areas, for ages ranging from 5 to 16 years.

The resources allow users to make decisions about energy in virtual scenarios and see the local, national and global implications.

Age-appropriate language is used in each area, with online activities aimed at the youngest children having audio as well as text instructions. Cartoons make topics accessible for younger pupils, with photography being introduced into the resources aimed at older students to illustrate the real-life application of the topics they are studying.

A classroom pack, full of activity and information cards, accompanies each of the four areas.

EdComs Live have also trained E.ON staff volunteers to use the resource on school visits and ran a theatre in education tour, The Town of Total Darkness, to complement the primary school materials.

Outcomes

The Energy Experience was launched in August 2006. Since then, the classroom pack has been requested by over a third of primary schools and three quarters of secondary schools, and the number of unique visitors to the website each month has remained consistently high.

The resources have been thoroughly evaluated. The vast majority of teachers felt that the resources were easy to deliver and that they would be likely to use them again, and a high proportion of students reported that they had enjoyed their Energy Experience lesson more than their normal lessons. Pupils showed an increased knowledge of energy issues after the lessons, a pleasing number also reporting a change in attitude and behaviour.

E.ON was a new brand in the UK at the time that the programme was developed. Evaluation demonstrated that the resources increased teachers' awareness and understanding of E.ON and its business.