Happy New Year! We are entering 2025 with plenty of energy and conservation challenges on our minds. That’s why it’s more important than ever to engage students with content that inspires them to think critically about energy and the world around them.

We want to kick off the new year by sharing some changes we’ve made to the site and some of the exciting content we’re working on. We’re also spotlighting some of our best site features to make sure you get the most out of our program.

Keep reading for details on:

• Renaming our lessons to units
• Changes to assessments
• Career content
• Innovation activities
• A tour of website features
  
  

Lessons renamed to Units

You may be familiar with Lessons on our website, which are groups of activities that cover a topic in-depth. To better reflect the purpose of these groupings and how they fit into the curriculum, Lessons have been renamed to Units.

You can expect the same function from units, and old URL links to Lessons should redirect to the new category so you can retain your bookmarks. We hope the new name will provide better clarity to new and returning users about the difference between activities and units.

Re-assessing our assessments

The activities on our website have always included an Assessments tab which features guidance on how to assess students while they complete the activity. This assessment information has now been merged into the Curriculum fit tab.

We’ve made this change for two reasons:

1. We are making space for a new tab on some activities—keep reading to find out more!
2. Assessments are directly related to the curriculum fit of each activity, so we believe this information naturally goes together.

Additionally, we are working to improve our assessment framework to make it more useful for teachers. Future assessments will include guidelines to help evaluate students based on the Ministry of Education’s Proficiency Scale. We know that teachers want more from our assessment sections, and we continue to welcome feedback as we develop them.

Connecting to Power Smart careers

This year, we’re building career-related content on the Power Smart for Schools website. Select activities will include a Career connections tab to illuminate pathways from skills and passions to future careers.  

BC Hydro employs over 6,000 people and collaborates with many others across various fields in B.C. The modern employment landscape is more complex than ever, so our goal is to inspire students to imagine how their skills, interests, and aspirations are reflected in the landscape of BC Hydro. They don’t need to have their life figured out yet, but we can spark their imagination for the future and help them meet the people doing the work that they would love.

We hope our career content will open up conversations about how learning in the classroom can turn into real-life action and initiatives. This will especially add value for older students who are starting to think about what to do next, whether that’s higher education, technical training, or simply finding their way in the world as adults.

Innovation incoming

Our activities have been categorized under five topics: Conservation, Electricity, Energy, Safety, and Sustainability. Soon we will be adding a new topic called Innovation. Activities in this topic will focus on developing original ideas, critical thinking, thoughtful solutions, and playful imaginations.

New activities and units will be launched under this topic. We will also categorize some existing activities under this topic to better highlight their role in developing innovative thinking. Innovation activities will include opportunities to share more photos from your class and inspire each other to think outside the box.

Homeroom orientation

We want to highlight some of the site’s best features to make sure that new and returning users get the most out of Power Smart for Schools.

• Power Up Blog: Our Power Up Blog is where we post major updates, current events, and seasonal content on the site. You may have noticed that some time-sensitive content is only available temporarily, but we encourage you to go back and check out some of our useful posts which live on the blog. Stay tuned for lots more great content including articles, interviews, and curated content.
  
  
• Favourites Lists: In case you didn’t know, you can curate lists of your favorite activities right in the Power Smart for Schools website! On any activity, click the green Save button to add it to one of your lists, or create a new list to add it to. When logged into the site, click on your name at the top-right of the page and select Favourites lists to navigate to your lists.
  
  
• Classroom presentations: Did you know we offer classroom presentations? In collaboration with our Outreach team, teachers are invited to arrange one-hour virtual presentations tailored to your class’s grade level which talk about electricity, conservation, and safety. Submit a request to schedule one for your class. We can also arrange some in-person presentations, subject to availability.
  
  
• Teacher Network: Anyone can sign up for our website and subscribe for email updates, but teachers looking to engage even more can become part of our Teacher Network mailing list. We will collaborate with the Network to test content, collect feedback, develop our offerings, create professional development opportunities, connect in-person, and more! Let us know if you’re interested in joining this mailing list—you can withdraw at any time.

Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to follow our new content and updates throughout the year. We’re excited about what’s in store, and we also can’t wait to hear from you.

We’re always happy to hear your thoughts, find out how activities went in your class, and help with our resources whenever you need it. We can’t wait to hear from you.