For the past year, four students and their teacher have been working to encourage greener energy practices at Rockland High School. Recently, those efforts also brought the school some national recognition, when the National Energy Education Development Project selected the school for the Massachusetts Rookie of the Year award in the high school category.

The school earned the honor for “Amped Up in Rockland,’’ a yearlong project that the four sophomores in an Advanced Placement environmental science class and their teacher, Angela Armstrong, undertook to reduce energy usage and promote renewable energy at the school.

The project encompassed a variety of initiatives, from starting a community garden and compost area to sending teachers e-mail reminders to turn off their computers and other electronic devices before long vacations.

“It’s awesome. I’m glad that all the effort we have put in over the course of the year is recognized,’’ said Armstrong, who will be traveling to Washington next month with the four students — Alex Domina, Ronan McNally, Saoirse McNally, and Joe Naughton — to receive the award.

The National Energy Education Development Project is an organization that works to expand public knowledge of energy issues by providing educational materials to teachers and students, and providing training for teachers and other school officials, among other initiatives.

Its annual student awards program recognizes outstanding student achievement and leadership in planning and undertaking education outreach projects. State-level awards are presented for projects in each of four school levels and in special categories, including “Rookie of the Year.’’ The 2016 awards will be presented at the organization’s conference June 24-27.

Armstrong said she decided to have her class participate in the program because “it fits right into AP Environmental Science and I thought it would be a great yearlong project for my students.’’

As another initiative in the project, the class collected used K-Cups, the single-service coffee pods used in Keurig coffee makers, to plant seedlings for the new garden.

Armstrong said because plastic flower pots are produced with fossil fuel, replacing them with K-Cups is a way of reducing the school’s carbon footprint, as is growing and composting food on site. Vegetables grown in the garden will be sold at farmers’ markets and potentially could be included in the school lunches.

The class also arranged for more regular collections of the school’s recyclables, taught a fifth-grade science class about energy, and even initiated a magic-marker recycling program.

Naughton said he was thrilled that the class earned the award because promoting green energy “is something I’m very passionate about.’’

“[There] are so many ways we can cut down on energy use. It’s not that difficult,’’ he said.

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.