Conservation Through Education: Reducing Energy Consumption in Schools

1. Collegiate Academy Green Team (left to right) Alex Purvis, Hana Sorek, Janelle Carlson, Michaela Palermo, Richard Herbold, Nikitha Rai, (not shown) Ian Gilman, Hannah Gilman, Hannah Forsgren Northwest PA Collegiate Academy, Erie, Pennsylvania

2. Environmental Issue: Energy Consumption Utilizing the components of service-learning, the Collegiate Academy Green Team collaborated with Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School (PBES) in a students-teaching-students process to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the school through reduction of energy consumption, specifically electrical lighting. This project, entitled Conservation Through Education (CTE), aims at community outreach through student-led energy audits which educate students and the local community about the impact of electrical usage on the environment. The eventual goal is to have every school in the district participate in the program and achieve Energy Star status. Reasons for Choosing Global Warming and Climate Change: Climate change is a dire consequence of the irresponsibility and apathy of this and past generations. 56%of Pennsylvania’s electricity is produced by coal-fired energy plants, which emit exorbitant amounts of greenhouse gases, namely CO2. The energy audit provides energy reduction strategies and education about the harmful effects of inefficient lighting. By reducing electrical lighting and increasing natural lighting, CTE aims to reduce the amount of consumed electricity and coal and, consequently, the amount of CO2 emitted into the air. The project will be both fiscally and environmentally beneficial. Conservation Through Education teaches children confidence, responsibility, and respect for the environment, in a fun and engaging manner.

3. Action Plan! • Our long-term project goal is to infuse an environmentally-conscious enthusiasm into PBES and the Erie School District. We plan to do this by showing the District, starting with this target school, how cost-effective a light-reduction program can be. Starting in October, we will collaborate with 4th and 5th grade students to: discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the school’s current energy-usage program; measure how efficient the lights and other devices used in the school are; take this information, as well as other data collected by the school from 2005-2010, and submit it on PBES’s own Energy Star website; and, using all available information, present in January to faculty, staff, and students an action plan for the school to follow in order to attain Energy Star status, as well as general environmental well-being.

4. Teaming Up • Energy Star Website Committee: Nikitha Rai and Richard Herbold. We will work on determining the accuracy of the Energy Star website data and teaching our team members how to create graphs, using Microsoft Excel, to show trends in the data. We will focus on teaching the kids how to use Microsoft Excel, how to understand what the numbers they type represent, and what it means for their school. The external purpose of our committee will be to expose the trends in gas usage and electrical usage over a period of six years. • Counting Light Bulbs Committee: HanaSorek and Hannah Gilman. We will count light bulbs in different areas of the school. We will send fliers to each teacher to have their students count the light bulbs in their respective classrooms to get the entire school involved. The hallways, stairwells, library, and cafeteria/gymnasium will also be counted. We will then teach our team members how we can use a calculator and basic math to compute how much electricity is used daily in every singular type of room—gymnasium, cafeteria, classroom, hallways—to identify the largest usage of electrical energy due to lighting. • Wattage Meter and Thermal Sensor Committee: Janelle Carlson and Hannah Forsgren. Our dual purpose will be to measure the number of watts used by various appliances in the building and to measure the efficiency—or inefficiency—of the windows and doors of PBES. In doing so, we hope to figure out whether or not these appliances draw electricity when turned off, and whether the windows are a cause of concern for energy leakage. We will use wattage meters to determine this information and thermal sensors to detect leaks around windows and doors. • PowerPoint Presentation Committee: Alex Purvis and Michaela Palermo. We will work on the power point that will be presented to the faculty and staff. We will compile the information we receive from the different groups and use it to create the presentation—we will also create the introductory and recommendation slides. We will teach the kids how to use Microsoft PowerPoint while increasing their knowledge of energy conservation while making the recommendation slides. • Light Meter Committee: Ian Gilman. I will work with the light meters and my committee will be charged with calculating the amount of foot candles present in each room. The Erie County Health Department recommends between 40 and 45 foot candles. The purpose of my community will be to measure the amount of light and, if possible, use more sources of natural light and reduce electrical light to achieve the proper Health Department standards.

5. How will we measure success and quantify impact? Benchmarking on the EnergyStar.gov website provides the main source for monitoring. The submission of general building information, six years of electrical and heating bills (usage and cost) allows the site to determine an initial rating for the school. Once the audit and subsequent changes are implemented, data submission will continue so that future assessments can occur. These continual updates allow for a comprehensive view of the school’s changing efficiency and set the stage for further improvements. The ultimate goal for the district is to have every school achieve Energy Star status (75 out of 100). Our team measures success by how much the kids that we mentored learned. The kids that went through this program learned scientific terminology, public speaking, learning how to use technology (Microsoft Excel, Graphs, and Power Point; wattage meters), math and a new appreciation and respect for our environment. In the future we will calculate how much energy was saved by the project at Pfeiffer-Burleigh and see if their energy star rating increased or not. If they use our advice, we will track how much energy they are saving by their energy star rating.

6. Implementation • When we first decided to focus on a school, we knew it would be one of the elementary schools but we did not know which one. Ultimately our project lasted from the beginning of October 2010to mid January 2011 . Our team decided to focus on one school, Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School. After we chose our target, we decided on a game plan. As a team, we chose to visit the school on Wednesdays. During our first visit, we gathered information about the school and asked a list of pre-prepared questions to the students who ranged from grades 4-5. These students answered the questions and then on our second visit we had the Chief Engineer, Mr. Brasington, give us a tour of the school. This tour turned out to be very helpful in seeing how the school was conserving energy and what they had to work on to make their community greener. After we had gathered sufficient information, on our third visit we decided to split the children into committees that did various activities to gather more information about the school and organize the presentation. We decided to maintain the original schedule (meeting on Wednesdays after school) and spent close to 90 minutes (1 ½ hours) at Pfeiffer-Burleigh. After all the data was collected through the various committees, the power point committee which was in charge of organizing the data into slides, created a detailed and informative slideshow that was simple enough for the children to present and detailed enough to get the message out to our community. This experience proved to not only be educational for the children but also for the team as well.

7. The School Event • As a team, we organized a community-wide event that helped us get the message out to our peers. Our presentation, which was held in the Pfeiffer-Burleigh library on January 12, 2011, was detailed and thoughtful. Our audience consisted of parents and teachers, though our audience considerably broadened after the presentation was featured on the local channel WICU news center. Our audience not only included the families and friends of the children but also our local community due to the media coverage we received for our project.

8. Community Partners • We worked with many different groups and people that helped make this project happen and a success. • Among these groups was the Department of Environmental Protection. The Sustainability Educational Coordinator, Guy McUmber, helped our team by giving advice about our energy audit procedures. • Pat Lupo, Executive Director of Earth Action, assisted with the implementation of recommendations as a follow up to the energy audit project . • Mercyhurst College also had a great hand in making this project a successful one. One of their students, a 3rd year Sustainability Major named Tom Hall, assisted us with designing the invitations for the Pfeiffer-Burleigh presentation, helped create graphs with the data located on the Energy Star website, and took pictures throughout the presentation. • Our project was very informative to our community and helped us get the word out about conservation of energy. We were able to spread this message to the rest of our community through posting information on our green team website which is http://www.collegiateacademy.com/greenteam/ • On the green team website, you will find the press release for the presentation; a video of the presentation; a DVD of the local news story; and the powerpoint presentation. earthActionErie

9. Measured Success • Our plan was successful because we were able to introduce kids to a fun way to conserve energy and show them ways to help our environment. We also introduced a mission to them to help save energy not only at their school but also to carry that message home and to their community. • We gave students the opportunity to collect, record, analyze, and present data. In the process, they learned to use electronics and monitoring equipment, build confidence in public speaking, and build a relationship with our team. We benefitted as much as they did and it was hard to say good-bye after the presentation. • As a team we faced many challenges in completing the project. When we visited the school, some students would be missing while others would be added into the group. It was a new experience for us to work with 4th & 5th graders. We had to become familiar with a school we had never been in before. Overall the project did go smoothly because of the dedication of our teammates, advisors, and students themselves.

10. Raising the Bar • There were many aspects of our project that helped our community know about the urgency of reducing our energy consumption, with a focus on reducing the amount of electrical light we use. The presentation was given to students, faculty, staff, parents, and invited guests. The students have learned a message that they can carry on to their homes and around their school. Many of the recommendations that were given can be used around the community and can be carried out right in the students homes. The local news channel, WICU Channel 12, also provided a segment on the presentation and allowed a wide audience of thousands of people to hear our message and understand what we are trying to do. The news coverage provided us with an outlet where we could raise awareness and allow others to know how important this particular issue is.

11. Quantifiable Results • The Energy Star Rating for Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School is 59/100. • The area of the building that consumes the most electricity due to lighting is the gymnasium/cafeteria • On average, the classrooms used very little electrical lighting and could not increase the amount of natural light due to a lack of windows. • In some rooms, electrical appliances could be unplugged or put on a power strip to be turned off when not in use. • Most importantly, by graphing the energy data, we found that the school was using as much electricity during the summer as during the school year. Perhaps, they are running the air conditioning at too high a level while school is not in session. • See our results and recommendations in the PBES powerpoint on the green team website. • We learned how to work together as a team, plan a research project, interact with elementary students, most of all, make a difference in our local and global community.

12. Money for the Future There is a plan to implement the CTE Project into all 21 schools in the Erie School District in the fall of 2011 during the school day. It has been approved by Jay Badams, Erie City School District Superintendent, and will be presented to the school board in April 2011. The Pfeiffer-Burleigh Project was conducted in an after-school enrichment program called CHAMPS. The purpose of this program was to pilot the student-led energy audits for the district-wide program. The winnings will be used to purchase light meters, wattage meters, and thermal sensors for the district energy project.

13. Good Afternoon Collegiate Green Team, Yesterday’s Green Team presentation was simply amazing.  I was so impressed with these young 4th & 5th graders working with Excel spreadsheets and meters, doing graphs and all that the project entails.  You and your students have done a wonderful job and there is no way of measuring the benefit of the relationships forged during the process.  I’m certain the Pfeiffer students will miss the Collegiate students greatly at the end of the project. As I said in conversation, this type of presentation is what motivates me to do my job.  When I see what the students are capable of, loving what they are doing and engaged in such meaningful projects, it fuels my energy and enthusiasm. Thank you and your students for your commitment to this project.  I’m certain we’ll continue to hear more great things about this and other “Green Team” projects as we move forward. On behalf of Lorri, the CHAMPS students and myself, please accept this heartfelt Thank You! Roseanna M. Ward Program Facilitator CHAMPS Afterschool Enrichment Program The School District of the City of Erie, PA Project Gallery

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