2026 REcharge Academy
St. Paul, MN
Macalester College
July 12-17, 2026
Our flagship educator training program focused on clean energy. The intensive training blends lectures from experts and tours of energy facilities with replicable hands-on K-12 lessons.
Applications are open until March 1, 2026. Please expect to hear from us with decisions and more information by mid-March of 2026. Registrations are considered on a rolling basis, so apply today!
What is the REcharge Academy?
The REcharge Academy is our flagship educator training program focused on clean energy.
The intensive training blends lectures from experts and tours of energy facilities with replicable hands-on K-12 lessons to give educators content as well as context. The REcharge Academy combines materials from REcharge Labs, WindWise, KidWind, NEED, WhiteBox Learning and Vernier, as well as many other materials we find applicable and useful in the classroom.
Nearly 600 educators of all types have attended our REcharge Academies from all over the world and have impacted thousands of students and educators. We've come a long way from our first class of 8 Wind Senators in 2008!
Once an educator attends a REcharge Academy, they are considered a REcharge Instructor for life and become part of our extended family! Instructors may just incorporate lessons and curriculum into their own classrooms, or they may go further and work with local schools and districts to share the resources they’ve explored or train other teachers in wind and solar.
REcharge Instructors are critical actors who can help educate the world about renewable energy. They also help our team develop and test new materials and help KidWind hold regional KidWind Challenges. We estimate that each year our network of Instructors train at least 1,000 educators and impact 30,000 students through workshops and outreach events.
Wondering what we do at a REcharge Academy? Check out the complete 2025 REcharge Academy Agenda!
What Are the Costs?
Tuition: $1,500
This includes four full days of clean energy education session, site visits and excursions, lunch each day, and $400 in classroom materials.
Room & Board: $1,000
If you opt to add Room and Board to your registration, KidWind will take care of all of your meals, lodging, and transportation from arrival through departure.
Our lodging options vary per year and location but are typically on a university campus, in suite-styled dorms. Note, our lodging is only for attendees. If you bring a guest or partner to the Academy, you must stay off-site.
Scholarships
A significant number of full scholarships are available for educators working in Title I schools, with student populations underrepresented in STEM, or working in targeted regions. Travel support may be available.
Scholarship applications are included in the REcharge Academy registration. We encourage you to apply even if you can only attend if you receive a full scholarship.
FAQs
Is the REcharge Academy for Me?
Any educator interested in growing their clean energy knowledge and learning how to integrate this into their classroom is welcome to apply for the REcharge Academy. We seek all kinds of educators to attend our program. They can be classroom teachers, after school educators, educators who work in informal environments like museums and makerspaces. Educators from both the U.S. and abroad are welcome to apply.
We have found that this experience is best suited for classroom teachers and informal educators working with 3rd through 12th grade students. While we welcome non-science teachers (general education and special education teachers, other content specialists, counselors, etc.), educators with the following characteristics are preferred:
- At least 5 years of teaching experience
- Some basic knowledge of clean energy
- Network of local partners interested in similar projects in your area
- Previous experience with teacher training outreach
- Attendance and participation at previous KidWind events
Staying Offsite
Attendees have the option to stay offsite at a local hotel or vacation rental. We can provide some guidance on this, but it will be up to the attendee to book their own lodging. These attendees will just have to pay tuition (not room and board).
Paying for REcharge
Attendees will pay during registration with credit card. If necessary, attendees can pay by purchase order or check. If you need to pay by purchase order or check, please contact Kristen at Kristen@KidWind.org. We will set up payment portals/methods with partial scholarship recipients once scholarship decisions are released.
Cancellation Policy
We understand that your plans sometimes change, and we strive to be as fair and transparent as possible. To help us manage event logistics and ensure equitable access, we’ve established the following cancellation fee schedule. Refunds are based on the date of cancellation relative to the event start date. All cancellation requests must be submitted in writing and reflect non-refundable processing fees.
Now - January 15, 2026: Refund for 95% of your payment.
January 16 - March 15, 2026: Refund for 80% of your payment.
March 16 - June 1, 2026: Refund for 50% of your payment.
Unfortunately, no refunds for cancellations can be processed after June 1, 2026.
Sponsor a Local Educator
Support renewable energy education in areas important to your company by sponsoring local educators to attend. By sponsoring a REcharge Academy educator, you are helping to increase local understanding of clean energy on an individual and community-wide scale. These trained experts can be one of your biggest assets in challenging development environments.
In our experience, for the greatest impact in a region we recommend sponsoring a team of three educators to attend the REcharge Academy. This team can then work together on launching KidWind Challenges, community outreach and professional development for other teachers in their region.
Sponsorship Costs
Tuition: $1,500
This includes four full days of clean energy education session, site visits and excursions, lunch each day, and $400 in classroom materials.
Room & Board: $1,000
This Room & Board costs allow KidWind to take care of all of an attendee's meals, lodging, and transportation from arrival through departure.
Our lodging options vary per year and location but are typically on a university campus, in suite-styled dorms.
When should we get started?
What happens after an educator is trained?
These newly trained REcharge Instructors are tremendous assets in communities. They can hold clean energy trainings, help with local outreach events, or they can even help to organize KidWind Challenges. They are basically your local ‘boots on the ground’ when it comes to K-12 outreach.
2024 Recap!
This year we visited beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska! Our partners at Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) helped us put on a REcharge Academy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Troth Yeddha’ campus on the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River.
We learned about the unique energy landscape of Alaska with a focus on renewable microgrids. We toured NREL’s Alaska Campus, the microgrid testing lab at Alaska Center for Energy and Power and much more. View the full schedule here.
We explored resources and curriculum for teaching about microgrids in the classroom, including efficiency, storage, wind, solar, and transmission.
Thanks to our REcharge Academy Sponsors!
