Download Green SCSD Newsletter March 2016 KiloWatch Students Become Leaders for their Schools

March 2016
Green SCSD Newsletter
KiloWatch Students Become Leaders for their Schools
Frazer KiloWatch students, in Ms. Fremont’s 7th grade
science class, have shown real initiative to make energy
saving important at their school. Coral Casperson, Maria
Rajab, Elona Kotlyarov, Jasmine Power, Sabrina Phillips
and Kassandra Rodriguez gave presentations to two
elementary classrooms on the KiloWatch program. The
presentations described why saving energy is important
and how students and teachers at Frazer can do their part.
They were very excited at the chance to be leaders for a
younger generation.
Ms. Freemont’s 8th grade science students
have taken over as the new energy saving champions
in the school for the second half of the year. They
have been monitoring how all of the classrooms in the
school use energy and analyzing where the energy is
being used the most. They found that currently, 54
percent of all classrooms at the school keep their
blinds closed. They will be starting a campaign
encouraging the use of natural light. If more blinds are left open, classrooms can shut off their lights.
Shine a Light on Climate Change with Earth Hour at SCSD
Friday, April 1st from 1:00-2:00 is SCSD Earth Hour. Students and
teachers will be encouraging individual actions that can reduce our impact on
climate change.
There are many ways we can all save energy every day! Opening the
blinds in a classroom encourages us to turn off the lights and use natural light,
imagine if the lights were left off in the classroom all day! Unplugging unused
appliances and electronics eliminate phantom plug loads! There are many
ways to reduce energy in your classroom.
By pledging to take on one action for an hour, you will be making a statement on how simple it is to
reduce energy use. Reducing energy consumption helps to reduce our impact on climate change.
Join in on this event by pledging one action you will take for this hour. Taking part in Earth hour and
sharing your action will influence those around you to consider how they use energy and how to reduce their
impact on climate change, as well.
March 2016
Student Articles of the Month: Changing
Computer Settings to Reduce Energy Use!
Students in Mr. Menio’s 7th grade Avid class, at
Roberts, have embarked on a mission to change the computer
settings at their school. They wrote a letter to the librarian,
Mrs. Macor, asking her if she would be willing to change the
settings on the library computer. Additionally, they created a
list of computers in the library and computer lab to write help
tickets for the SCSD Information Technology (IT) department
to change the computer settings. They also wrote a letter to IT
to formally request these changes. If their request is successful
the new settings will be extremely helpful in reducing energy
use at the school! Two of these letters are featured below.
Elleana Marland, 7th Grade Student at Roberts:
Dear Mrs. Macor,
We have noticed that your computers don’t shut off
automatically and need to be shut off manually. This wastes
energy. We are KiloWatch, and our goal is to save money and
energy for the school. We were wondering if you would be
willing to change the settings on your computers. We also
noticed that you set the computers up for your classes. So with
the computer lab we were thinking 10 minutes and it goes to
sleep. With the library computers, we were thinking 30
minutes, and will not log off, unless done manually. We hope
you understand.
Signed,
KiloWatch
Claire Hennessey, 7th Grade Student at Roberts:
Dear IT,
th
The 7 grade students at J.T. Roberts School are working with
KiloWatch to save energy in our school. Two students went
down to the computer lab and the library to write down the
numbers on the computers. We would like to change the
settings on the computers. We would like to change the
settings to go to sleep mode after 10 minutes, while staying
logged in. We would like to do this for the following
computers:
Thank you,
7th grade students at
Roberts
What is Green SCSD?
Green SCSD is collaboration between the
Syracuse City School District, the National
Energy Education Development Project (NEED)
and Energy Training Solutions (ETS). The goal
of the Green SCSD is to reduce the amount of
energy consumed and waste produced within the
SCSD. Green SCSD was born from the school
district’s desire to incorporate environmentally
themed initiatives within the school day at each
grade level throughout all of the city’s schools.
What KiloWatch?
The students and staff who are part of KiloWatch
educate the school community on energy
conservation and recycling. In some schools,
students are collecting recyclables on a daily
basis and monitoring the recycling behaviors in
their buildings. In others, students are using
professional energy auditing equipment to learn
about technologies and practices that save energy
by conducting experiments and energy audits of
their school buildings. After an energy analysis of
the school has been conducted, students
implement a school wide energy conservation
campaign. The program integrates inquiry-based
science, mathematics, and language arts
classroom instruction to provide students with a
real-world learning experience that corresponds
to state and national learning standards.
Want to get involved?
Contact Krystal White or Todd Rogers
Krystal White
Green SCSD Program Coordinator
[email protected]
917-732-7970 x-2
Todd Rogers
Green SCSD Program Manager
[email protected]
917-732-7970 x-1
March 2016
The Numbers Are In! Schools Are Saving Energy!
Every month students in the KiloWatch program read the electricity meter at their schools. They have
been using those readings to track their energy use compared to previous years. The difference in energy use is
put on a bar graph, prominently on display at each school. Recently KiloWatch students had the opportunity to
look at how all the schools in the program are doing.
Taking the yearly electricity savings to date,
they created their own bar graphs. Projects like this
are not only educational but inspiring. The schools
are saving energy! ED Smith, alone, has used 15
percent less electricity this year than expected.
Students were impressed to see that their efforts in the
school have been successful. They were also excited to learn
about KiloWatch teams at other schools. This kind of data
integration shows that schools really can change their
behaviors to use less energy. We hope to have more
collaborative projects with all KiloWatch students in the
future!
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