During the last four years, Mount View is proud to have reduced energy through the following projects created by students:
Customized Lightswitch Plates
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Turn Off The TV Campaign
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Save The Coral Reef Campaign
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Lights Audit
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Energy Announcements
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Chocolate Cake Reward
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Customized Lightswitch Plates
Four students conducted an experiment to see if teachers would be more likely to turn off their lights when they left the room if they had an appealing lightswitch "accessory." Student placed handmade lightswitch plates with a sounds button and other lightswitch plates with content-specific imagery in teachers' classrooms. Their research revealed that lightswitch accessories did cause teachers to turn off their lights more, but only if the teachers had input into which accessory they received. Students have created more than 15 different lightswitch plates. |
Two of the students write a summary of their findings for the ELT (Environmental Leadership Team) with the suggestion that they create customized light switch plates for teachers.
The students' research question and key findings:
An ELT student places a customized lightswitch in an English teacher's room.
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Turn Off The TV Campaign
Started several years ago by students participating in Mount View's first Green School recertification, ELT members continue to make sure that TVs have signs reminding teachers and students to turn off TVs at the end of the day. Polls show that students notice the sign and are more likely to volunteer to turn off the TV for the teacher at the end of the school day. |
Save Electricity To Save Coral Reefs
A student in G/T Research learned how climate change was causing coral reef bleaching. Based upon her research, she decided to create a page on our Green School website explaining how saving electricity can help to save coral reefs. |
Screenshots from the student's research.
A screenshot of the webpage created by the student and located on our Green School website.
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Chocolate Cake Reward
A student on the ELT (Environmental Leadership Team) polled teachers to see how many of them are motivated to change behavior if they receive food as a reward. Based upon a large positive response, the students convinced our French teacher (known to be a good baker!) to bake a cake for one lucky staff member if they participated in at least one Earth Hour activity created by students, from answering a trivia question to participating in spirit wear. Participation by staff in Earth Hour jumped to 34 out of 53 teachers! |
The teachers' responses to the challenge. Teachers listed completed at least one activity for Earth Hour.
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Energy Audit
In an effort to identify how often teachers were turning off their lights when they left their classrooms, a group of students in G/T Research decided to conduct random "checks" of classrooms over a two week period. The students took shifts leaving out of their classrooms and checking on classrooms at various times. They complied their data into an easy-to-read spreadsheet which showed how often the teacher's lights were off when the room was empty. This information was shared with Team Leaders in an effort to encourage everyone to address energy conservation. |
One of the students marking the map.
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A screenshot of part of the students' final results.
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