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The Alliance to Save Energy kicked off its first Green Schools program in its hometown last week, bringing the Saving Energy in DC Schools (SEDS) Program to the District of Columbia.
Participants take part in an "oatmeal relay" to demonstrate the transfer of energy in a system.
The SEDS program, funded under the DC Public Service Commission by the Natural Gas Trust Fund and co-implemented with the District Department of the Environment’s Energy Office, engage students, teachers, facilities, staff, and administrators in teaching and learning about energy efficiency while actively pursuing energy saving opportunities at school.
School representatives from a mix of fourteen public, charter, and private schools from around the District gathered for the inaugural Saving Energy in DC Schools Program fall workshop on October 23rd.
The teams of school representatives, consisting of teachers, school support staff, facilities managers, maintenance staff, and/or administrators, engaged in a full day of learning about energy and planning SEDS activities for their schools and students.
Schools heard welcome comments and encouragement from representatives from the DDOE’s Energy Office that tied the schools’ efforts into other Energy Office programs around the district; from Councilmember Mary Cheh’s office, showing participants how the District is poised to be a leader in sustainability; and from the Office of Transformation Management at District of Columbia Public Schools that let schools know that DCPS is committed to reducing energy costs and getting accurate data for schools to use.
Teams also received lesson plans to engage their students in learning about energy, and Green Schools Tool Kits of professional-quality diagnostic tools. Everyone enjoyed using the light meters, watt meters, temperature sensors, and building stethoscopes to generate creative ideas about involving students in collecting, analyzing, and tracking energy data at their schools.
The school teams from Aidan Montessori School, Alice Deal MS, Capital City PCS, Center City PCS, Gonzaga College HS, Horace Mann School, Key Elementary School, Lafayette Elementary School, McKinley Tech HS, Oyster Adams Bilingual School, Prospect Learning Center, Stoddert Elementary, Washington International School, and Wilson Senior HS planned activities for the next few months in each of the above target goals, and will begin implementing their plans as soon as they get back to school.
The Alliance to Save Energy is excited about the enthusiasm and innovation that came out of the workshop and is looking forward to empowering students through energy efficiency in meaningful and productive ways this year.
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