FRANKFORT, KY -- A Paintsville teacher was among educators from across America who explored ways to investigate current environmental issues with their students during a recent summer workshop at The Keystone Center in Keystone, Colorado. 

Kentucky Power, a unit of American Electric Power, sponsored the instructor, who was one of 10 educators chosen from a select field of applicants from across AEP’s 11-state service territory. Chosen to represent Eastern Kentucky on behalf of Kentucky Power was Hans Doderer, a science teacher at Paintsville High School.

The Key Issues Institute is a national teacher training program that provides creative and innovative middle-level educators with the process, skills and confidence to investigate environmental issues with their students in a non-biased manner.

Educators spend six days in the classroom and field engaging in activities that explore the environmental aspects of a simulated issue. To augment classroom implementation, participants receive a suggested curriculum, instructional materials, computer software programs, as well as lab kits and on-line support from educators and instructors.

Teachers use the Key Issues Framework that meets National Education Standards in a variety of disciplines to develop and implement new classroom plans that focus on local environmental issues. The program supports an interdisciplinary approach.

Bob Shurtleff, manager of distribution and customers services for Kentucky Power’s Pikeville District, said sponsoring teachers’ participation in the professional development program underscores Kentucky Power’s commitment to education. 

“This workshop makes it possible for teachers to investigate contentious environmental issues with their students without bias and to facilitate student inquiry,” he said. “The integration of science, math, social studies and language arts throughout the investigation mirrors the real-world mix of disciplines necessary to evaluate complex environmental issues.”

The Keystone Center is a nonprofit organization founded in 1975 that seeks to solve society’s most challenging environmental, energy and public health problems. The center brings together public, private and civic leaders to confront these issues and arms the next generation with the 21^st Century intellectual and social skills required to effectively approach the questions they will face. For more information, visit www.keystone.org.

Kentucky Power is an operating unit of American Electric Power and provides electricity to approximately 173,000 customers in all or parts of 20 Eastern Kentucky counties.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.state electricity transmission and distribution grid. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio.

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