Our funded webinar presentations aim to provide your students, as the future drivers of America, with the knowledge of clean transportation
Dear Vermont STEM Educator:
I am executive director of Green Driving America Inc. (GDA), a 501c3 nonprofit grassroots organization based in California with a branch location in Vermont. We advocate for clean transportation and transportation efficiency, with a specialty on education in the school community.
BACKGROUND: GDA’s roots are in Vermont, begun as Idle-Free VT in 2006. The organization has worked with educators in the Vermont school community since 2013 to give 120+ funded, guest-speaking green driving presentations in driver education classes along with some high school STEM classes. More than 2,000 students learned about the benefits in how we drive: smart driving practices such as accelerate and brake smoothly, watching speed, avoiding unnecessary idling, and more.
I am a two-time Air Quality Champion, being recognized by the American Lung Association in Vermont and East Bay (CA) Clean Cities. And I am a Transportation Solutions contributing writer for the Vermont publication: Green Energy Times.
Thanks to the Climate Catalysts Innovation Fund of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, for the second year running, The Clean Transportation Path© project is offering webinar presentations for high school STEM educators. Funding is currently available to the end of 2024. Featured are 45-minute1 to one hour+ guest-speaking PowerPoint and video presentations given virtually (such as Zoom) by trained college level interns2 from Vermont colleges, showing students the cost savings / CO2 emissions and fossil fuel use reductions / improved air quality benefits of plug-in vehicles (PHEVs and EVs):
• How they operate and differ from traditional gas vehicles
• How their maintenance/repair costs are typically one-half of gas vehicles
• The impact of EVs being 4/5ths efficient vs gas vehicles being 1/5th efficient
• Details on plug-in vehicle charging and Vermont’s growing charging station infrastructure
• Purchase/lease incentives and credits of new and used versions of these vehicles, featuring Vermont’s MileageSmart program for more affordable used hybrids and plug-in vehicles
• How they perform in cold weather
• A brief guide on smart driving practices in gas-powered vehicles
• Our presentations also touch on alternatives to driving, including public transportation, bicycling, walking, and ride sharing/car pooling
• Student PDF handout summation of this presentation
1Truncated 30-minute presentations also available
2Interns, who are paid a stipend, are trained to avoid being scripted, and encouraged to be engaging and to add their own personal experience to the subject matter.
Drive Electric Vermont, the state source on vehicle electrification advocacy and information,
has endorsed our presentations:
“Drive Electric Vermont endorses The Clean Transportation Path presentations Green Driving America is giving in Vermont high school driver education and STEM classes. The benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) to future drivers of Vermont are clearly described in the presentation, along with important information on incentives and additional cost savings associated with EVs. Vermont has ambitious goals to reduce transportation emissions – achieving them will require many new drivers to consider EV options in the years to come!”
Why this initiative? The State of Vermont has goals on plug-in vehicle registrations. VTrans states in their Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan – 2023 (FFY2024) Update: “State goals…call for an increase in the total registrations of electric vehicles to 27,000 by 2025 and 126,000 by 2030 to meet the greenhouse gas emissions reductions called for in Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act.” (page 14).
Please visit the The Clean Transportation Path webpage for further details, and if interested in considering a presentation, contact GDA executive director Wayne Michaud.
Email: info@greendrivingamerica.org • Phone/Text: 916-209-0224
Presentation pre-screenings via Zoom are available to interested educators.
Thank you,
Wayne Michaud
Teacher recommendations from 2023 presentations:
"The Clean Transportation Path presentation given by Green Driving America gives students a nice overview of alternatives to driving gasoline-powered cars. The student presenter [Cyrus Perkinson, Middlebury College sophomore] did a nice job and the organization is easy to work with.”
- Lea Ann Smith, math teacher/STEM Academy Leader at Essex High School, Essex Junction, VT
"Sophie [Guillemette, UVM freshman] did a great job. We had 14 students in attendance. I'd say that the information in the slides was mostly already familiar to them, and they were looking for more science and technical information on current advancements and environmental impact. Sophie was able to provide some of that by Q&A. To other STEM educators, I would say that the presentation was informative and accessible."
- Danny Brzozowski, Hartford High School Science Department Chair, Hartford, VT
All Green Driving America Inc. projects are proprietary including content and materials; permission must be obtained for use of any materials.