Introducing High Performance Schools and the Online Curriculum

Course Overview

The United States is in the process of an unprecedented explosion in school design and construction. As a consequence, the country has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the built environment in ways that will influence the lives of K-12 students for generations to come. This training program, created by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Association of State Energy Officials, has been developed to take advantage of this opportunity - to help those involved in the process of designing and building schools make sure these schools perform at peak capacity.

This course introduces the online training program and its core text - the National Best Practices Manual for Building High Performance Schools. The course also discusses some of the key characteristics and components of high performance schools and reviews the basic principles of an "integrated design" process. The course is worth one hour of continuing education credit in the area of Health, Safety, Welfare.