AGAWAM — Arriving home from school one recent afternoon, fourth grader Mary Moriarty and fifth grader Danny Loban each received a package by special delivery with a “cool” prize inside: a $400 Amazon gift card.

They received their gift cards as first place winners in their grade levels for a contest challenging students in kindergarten through 12th grade to showcase their knowledge about saving energy, energy-efficient technologies and sustainability. Known as the Eversource Challenge, it’s sponsored by energy provider Eversource for all students in Massachusetts communities the company serves.

Moriarty, a student at Granger School, and Loban, a student at Doering School, are two of four Agawam students named winners in this year’s challenge. The two other students are Aiden Davis, a Clark School kindergartener, and Aimen Adeel, a Doering sixth grader. Both received $100 Amazon gift cards as third-place winners.

Students were assigned different projects based on their grade level. Sixth graders like Adeel wrote letters persuading parents to be more energy efficient. Loban and other fifth graders were asked to create an energy-saving superhero poster, along with a 500-word description. Fourth graders designed a billboard promoting energy saving and wrote a persuasive paragraph. Kindergartners made a poster about saving energy.

Loban focused on the sun as a renewable energy source. His superhero poster featured a character he called Sun Man.

“If there’s a cloudy day that blocks solar panels, Sun Man can come to the rescue by moving the clouds and directing the sun to the panels,” he explained.

His superhero can also make sun energy himself when it’s most needed.

“If the sun’s not shining or setting, he can produce sun energy from his eyes,” Loban wrote.

Moriarty had lots of ideas for her billboard after talking to her science teacher and some friends at school.

“I like helping people save energy. I had so many ideas I didn’t know where to start,” she explained. She narrowed it down to three things: renewable energy, LED lights and using bikes instead of cars,

In a persuasive paragraph accompanying her design, she wrote, “Have you ever noticed how much electricity people use? A lot! In fact, the United States uses some of the most electricity in the world. It costs a ton of money.”

She explained that solar panels take the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity — saving money and helping the environment. LED lights are “great” because they save electricity and are energy-efficient.

Mary drew a picture of a solar panel, LED lights, a bike and a car with a red slash through it.

“You should try use cars less because they use nonrenewable energy. Bikes and scooters are some other great ways to get around besides cars,” she wrote.

Adeel used real-life examples about why it’s important to help save the Earth in a letter to her parents.

“If you turn off a light, you’re saving energy. If everyone does it, we’ll use less energy and create less pollution,” she urged them.

She researched ways to be more energy-efficient and less wasteful before she wrote the letter. Adeel also talked with her siblings about the need to be more aware of turning off lights and using less water at home.

“It’s just simple things that can help a lot,” she added.

Other energy saving tips Adeel included her letter: replace incandescent lights with LEDs; lower the refrigerator temperature; use the dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes; use full loads of laundry in washers and dryers instead of two separate half-loads.

Davis gave a lot of thought to his poster before drawing it.

“I remembered that many times we leave rooms and don’t turn off lights or the TV. I thought that if we kept doing that we would run out of electricity and not have any power,” explained the kindergartner.

His poster concentrated on that message. He drew a picture of a TV with a remote and a light switch, with the words “Turn off the lights and TV” underneath.

“I don’t want to waste electricity, so now I remember to turn off lights,” he said.

Adeel and Loban are students in Tammy Rumplik’s STEM classes. Davis and Moriarty are students of Robyn Wayrynen, the science and technology teacher at Granger and Clark schools. They were among hundreds of students throughout Massachusetts who participated in the contest.

This was Rumplik’s first year working with students at the middle school. Previously, she had been the science and technology teacher at Clark and Granger.

Wayrynen said students learned about energy and energy efficiency as part of the program so they would have a better understanding when doing their contest projects.

Kindergartners, she explained, learned about reducing the amount of electricity used by turning off lights, TVs, and other devices. Fourth graders learned about energy production, energy consumption and energy conservation.

“They wrote persuasive paragraphs and created billboards that could catch the attention of drivers and send a succinct message about energy conservation,” she said.

Rumplik said middle school students could be creative with more sophisticated projects to apply their knowledge of energy.

“The poster was a fun and unique way for fifth graders to do that, while sixth graders wrote a persuasive letter as respectful advocates.”

She said the program gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and understanding about energy savings to real-life situations that go beyond just learning facts.

“We want our students to be advocates and problem solvers,” Rumplik said. “This program allows students to do that and win cool prizes.”

Added Wayrynen: “Students enjoyed learning about the natural resources that provide energy and how we can try to help the Earth by using less electricity. Parents appreciated the opportunity for students to enter a contest about energy conservation and win prizes for their efforts.”

In addition to receiving their awards through the mail, winning students were honored with a video presentation.