Renewable Energy Story Book for Kids- By Kelsey Weeden

        For my cumulating action final project, I decided to create a short story for children about renewable energy. The goal of this story was to show kids that renewable energy is cool and great for the environment! This story is about a boy named Timmy and his mom who travel across the country to look at examples of renewable energy like solar panels and off shore wind farms. This was written with the intention to be read to elementary school children, but I'm confident that any age would enjoy this story. The story had to be complex enough to show why renewable energy is better than using fossil fuels and how renewable energy works, yet simple enough for kids to comprehend. This story was not meant to scare children into thinking the world is going to end because we won't stop using fossil fuels. I wanted kids to feel excited about solar and wind energy and feel hopeful for their future after hearing this story. I was fortunate enough to be able to share my story at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. I shared my story with the Puddle Jumpers and left copies at the front entrance for families to read or take home.

    As mentioned before, I wanted my audience to be elementary school children. As adults and climate activists, the issue of global warming can get frustrating and we can sometimes become doubtful that things will change. At times becomes a battle to stay hopeful because we know the reality of the situation. However, elementary school children have an open mind and easily get excited about solutions instead of worrying about the problem. When thinking about how I wanted to present climate change to kids, I thought about creating new social norms and sticking to positive strategies.

    Think back to the time when you were in elementary school. At that age, you care a lot about making friends and being accepted by your peers. At the end of my story, I wanted to frame it so that when the main character goes back home, he tells all of his friends about the cool renewable energy he has learned about. I wanted to plant that seed that if Timmy, the main character, could talk about what he had learned in the story, maybe the children I read to would to the same. Creating the social norm for that age that clean energy is good and dirty energy is bad is incredibly important because when they grow up, they may become advocates for renewable energy. We want the social norm to be that renewable energy is always better than energy that comes from fossil fuels. If anything, they will be familiar with it and at least know that it is good for the environment.

    What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warning by Per Espen Stoknes, there is a chapter called "From Barriers to Solutions". This chapter mentions that framing your message in a positive way works significantly better than sending a message of doom and negativity. This story book needed to be positive for two main reasons. One reason is that these children are innocent when it comes to contributing to climate change. They don't make the choice of where to buy things, how often they drive or travel, etc. They are dependent on their parents at this age. It would be completely unfair to present them with issues they can't change at their age. The second reason is that a message that is hopeful, fun, and engaging is much more effective than a message that evokes doubt, fear, and guilt. My story talked briefly addressed why fossil fuels are bad, but that was not the main focus of the story. The bulk of the story talked about energy alternatives like wind and solar power. When the main character learned about these alternatives, I wrote how excited he was in hopes that the children listening to the story would get excited too. Instead of frightening the kids about greenhouses gases, I focused the story on solutions and framed the story in a positive way.

    When I was able to present my story at Boyd Hill, I incorporated these strategies when talking to the kids before I read the story. I asked them a few questions about where they think energy comes from and what kinds of energy there was. I wanted to gauge where they were at and how much they knew about energy. This specific age range didn't know a lot about energy so it was a challenge to be put on the spot and explain dirty vs clean energy to someone who not only has never heard of the topic but also has a limited vocabulary. I am grateful for the staff who were able to help me when I got stuck and acted surprised and intrigued when I said that solar panels use energy from the sun. Although I knew what I wanted to say before going, it was completely different than what I imagined. I had to used skills I have learned in this course to reframe what I was trying to say in order to catch the kids up to speed. After I read them the story, they seemed fairly excited about the solar panels in particular. When I asked one kid if he wanted solar panels on his roof when he gets older he said yes! This indicates to me that received the message that renewable energy is good

        My hope for this story is that this story sticks with them and they can go back an reread it if they chose to when they're older. I wanted to get the message out there that there is hope and hopefully when solar and wind become more accessible, it won't be foreign to them. It will be familiar, and familiar things are comforting. I was able to present to the parents of the children too, which was a huge win for me. This story might encourage them to have the climate talk with their kids when they get older, or even look further into installing solar panels on their house. The main take-away from this project was just to make renewable energy less of a thing that seems like something that will happen in the future and more of something that can happen right now.

Link to the story: Timmy and Renewable Energy

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve for allowing me to distribute copies and present to the kids who came through. Thank you to Dr. Huxster for guiding me in this project and for teaching me incredibly useful communication skills.

Citations:

Stoknes, E. P. (2015). What we think about when we try not to think about global warming: toward a new psychology of climate action. Chelsea Green Publishing.