Education

The Alliance to Save Energy's Green Campus Program strives to increase awareness about the importance of Energy Efficiency; promote careers the field; generate actual savings; and contribute to the academic infusion of energy efficiency concepts.

The Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program is a student-driven energy efficiency education program that increases awareness of the importance of energy efficiency, promotes careers in the field, and generates actual energy savings. The program is currently conducted on 16 university campuses throughout California, employs over 75 student interns each year, and engages students, faculty and staff throughout the entire campus community.

The scientific method is about finding answers to questions and solving everyday problems.  Green Team students at Pomona Elementary put the scientific method to work to understand why their energy use went up even after the school community started employing energy saving practices.  Throughout the year, the students monitored the monthly energy bills and compared them to the previous year’s monthly energy usage.  When students discovered an energy spike, the Green Team employed the scientific method to figure out the problem! Using updated data from school energy experts to determine why school energy usage went up, the Green Team was able to monitor progress toward their goal of saving energy. 

Determining your school or home’s energy efficiency is based off of the amount of energy used compared to the amount of energy available. Replacing an inefficient light source with a more efficient one is arguably one of the most cost-effective and simple means of reducing personal electric energy consumption. A big part of emerging, international “Cap and Trade” policies (see Glossary of Terms) involves the phasing out of standard incandescent lights (the type of bulb you and your ancestors grew up with) and replacing them with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) or even more efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology.

This four-part analysis and project evaluation of world energy economics will encompass not only the identification of US and world energy sources, their production and end users, but also the worldwide explosion of energy demand through the year 2035. It is crucial for students to understand who the significant players are and what alternatives the United States has to stave off dramatic increases in energy cost relative to everything we consumer.

In an effort to introduce kids to the myriad of “green jobs” available, this lesson takes kids to a Green Career website --www.realcoolfutures.com*, to see how their interests can lead them to a job/career in the green field. While this is the primary site used, there are many other additional green career websites geared towards kids.