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Greetings,
It may be cold outside, but the work that the YES! teams are doing is red hot! They have been working hard on diverse projects, infused with energy from everything they learned at the six Winter Workshops we offered this January and February.
We are impressed with what the YES! teams have accomplished thus far this year and look forward to celebrating their achievements during the Spring Awards Ceremonies.
Sincerely,
The YES! Staff
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Students Enjoy Experiential Learning at Winter Workshops
More than 220 students and teachers from 20 YES! teams
participated in the Winter Workshops offered this year. We
 | | YES! students learned about the physics of energy at the Mankato Winter Workshop through hands-on experiments |
embraced the diversity of our teams' projects this year and developed six unique Winter Workshops that emphasized
hands-on learning, tours, and discussions with industry leaders surrounding topics that matter to our teams. Teams had the opportunity to:
Each of these Winter Workshops helped teams connect to resources, ideas and teams that are pursuing similar projects.
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Mankato West The Mankato West team was dismayed to learn that their school throws away 750 Styrofoam lunch trays every day. They decided to tackle this problem and calculated the financial costs and environmental benefits of switching to reusable trays. Read more about how they are implementing this project.  | | The Lac qui Parle Valley team learning about passive solar greenhouses at a Winter Workshop |
Lac qui Parle Valley The Lac qui Parle Valley team, now in its 5th year, has been busy this season focusing on the construction of a 20' x 40' outdoor solar greenhouse. They hope to begin the 2013-2014 school year with fresh greens sprouting! Learn more about their project.
 | | Members of the Rocori YES! Team at the Kennedy Community School Winter Workshop |
Rocori
The Rocori team was introduced to a valuable resource at one of the YES! Winter Workshops: Doug Lien of Tri-County Solid Waste. Barb Omann, the Rocori YES! coach remarked, "we wouldn't have this connection [to Doug Lien] if it weren't for YES - so we can't thank you enough! He's an amazing resource!". Read about how Doug has helped the Rocori team here.
See more of the exciting projects YES! teams are working on here.
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Energy Business Highlight
Larry Henderson of Backup Power Source
Everyone has experienced it: you are eating dinner or watching a great movie when all of a sudden the lights go out. We often take for granted the ease of life with electricity at our fingertips. Larry Henderson, CEO of Backup Power Source, has created a business based on helping people avoid the irritation and possible catastrophes of going without power.
Larry and a friend founded Backup Power Source, located in Slayton, in 2002. Backup Power Source provides off grid, grid assist, and grid tie-in products. These technologies make it
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One of the off-grid solar battery backup 'Welcome to Windom' signs installed by Backup Power Source
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possible to supplement fossil fuel energy use or even replace it all together with sustainable technologies, such as solar-electric panels or wind turbines. They recently installed off-grid solar panel systems to power two 'Welcome to Windom' city signs, resulting in no on-going energy costs for these signs because they are using renewable energy!
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Upcoming YES! Events
Spring Judging and YES! Awards Presentations
 | | The Sleepy Eye YES! Team won the YES! Grand Prize, Creativity & Innovation and Community Involvement awards last year |
YES! teams are busy documenting the great work they have done this school year. They will be participating in the YES! Spring Judging this April. Those teams that win YES! awards will receive a financial contribution towards their future projects as well as an awards ceremony at an event in their school or community.
If you are interested in participating as a judge this year, please contact us by April 1st.
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Did you know...
 | | An example of Heat Bleed, courtesy of www.energyresponsecorps.org |
You can visualize how much energy is being
lost by your home
simply by entering your address, year your home was built, how your home is heated and heating/cooling bills for your home. An online tool, Plug, was created by The Energy Response Corps as a way to help you evaluate how much energy your home is losing due to Heat Bleed.
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YES! empowers youth to partner with their community to create economic and environmental vitality through hands-on learning and team-based projects.
YES! provides a unique opportunity for students to learn by engaging directly in community efforts that lead to dramatic demonstrations of renewable energy technology and conservation practices and exposes them to how science is applied in real life. |
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YES! Program Partners
Additional Program Funders
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