Inter-School Collaboration for Conservation Quantification (Finalist.)
The Leo Baeck Day School
Robbins Hebrew Academy
Zerofootprint
The purpose of the Inter-School Conservation Quantification Collaboration effort is to empower Grade 8 students and teachers to understand the direct impact that their actions to reduce energy consumption will have. This would inspire further exploration in high school and post-secondary school.
Innovative Aspect
Unlike the current Toronto and Ontario Eco-Schools program, (http://www.ontarioecoschools.org) which groups schools using qualified measurements into bronze, silver, gold and platinum rankings, we plan to establish quantitative measurements and ways to properly normalize them, so we can compare schools and see the quantitative impacts that various energy conservation efforts have.
We want those measurable energy consumption reduction actions to be developed by the Grade 8 students themselves once they understand the overall reality of climate change, what the causes are, and have an understanding of the baseline consumption measurements of their own school, in the context of the community they live in.
Efforts to develop quantitative measurements will be done on a collaborative between participating schools in the 416. Instead of travelling between schools, we would use current social media and web technology to enable collaboration within a school and between schools and between experts both local and remote. We will then expand the collaborative effort to include schools in the 905 region. From there, we would take the effort international and partner with schools outside Canada.
We would also like to work with existing groups such as the Learning for a Sustainable Future and the Kortright Centre of the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority to identify best practices to establish energy consumption baselines and energy consumption reduction exercises which can quantified, and used between schools in the 416, 416 & 905 and 416 & schools in other countries.
How it will help Toronto
Success will help the current eco-schools effort evolve, and establish a collaborative approach to identifying measurable solutions for energy consumption reduction. This effort would have local, national and international implications as we bring the experience of crowdsourcing solutions to energy consumption reduction to a younger demographic
Steps to be taken
Understanding the Current Problem
We will leverage volunteers from the Climate Reality Project to help establish the overall context of what is driving the need to reduce energy consumption.
Establishing the External Baseline
Country --> Province --> City --> School
The external base line is the measurement of actual consumption of energy resources, electricity, natural gas and water. This will be done for each participating school.
We will be able to show the students the starting point at various levels, using CO2 equivalent emission numbers.
At the national and provincial level, we will use the national and provincial inventory numbers documented by Environment Canada in May 2011.
At the GTA Level we will use The Living City Report Card 2011 – An assessment of the environmental health of the Greater Toronto Area, published in March 2011 by Greening Greater Toronto, an initiative of CivicAction.
http://www.thelivingcity.org/lcrc4/
Quantifiable Consumption Reduction Exercises
We will look at the current thoughts of the Inconvenient Youth to identify potential projects which would resonate with Grade 8 level students
http://www.inconvenientyouth.org/
We intend to work with the Learning for a Sustainable Future team to leverage quantifiable energy consumption reduction exercises which they have already documented from around the world. We hope to establish a set of actions which can be done within schools, between schools in the same city / region, and between schools in different countries (Pams of LSF has indicated a willingness to connect to this effort - October 3 comment)
We intend to work with the Kortright Center of the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority, to identify specific experiences they have in quantifying energy consumption reduction exercises, and to leverage other experiences from other resources in their international network (Darryl Gray of Kortright has indicated a willingness to connect to this effort - October 4 comment)
The emission reduction potential will be dependent on the exercises we choose to use and measured against the baseline we establish
Impact to be measured against current baseline consumption (Initial set of ideas)
- Lighting within the school
- Reduction of controllable plugloads
- Setback levels for heating and cooling (occupied vs unoccupied)
- Energy generation
Impact to be measured once external baseline established (Initial set of ideas)
- Creative approaches to carpooling (Reducing distance, number of cars, public transit etc)
- Community Sustainable Agriculture (For consumption in school or for foodbanks)
We are looking to the ClimateSpark SVC community to identify additional energy conservation exercises whose impact can be quantified, to add to the list above.
The Leo Baeck Day School / Robbins Hebrew Academy – providing access to Grade 8 students and Staff, as well as committed parents and alumni
Zerofootprint – providing access to visualization software which will allow normalized comparisons of energy consumption data
Climate Reality Project - Canada – Canadian volunteers, some in the GTA, ready to present in person and through video, the basics of climate change at a Grade 8 level
- http://bit.ly/climatereality-billnye
- http://bit.ly/climatereality-newyork-short
- http://www.climatereality.ca/requestapresentation/presentation-request-form
Learning for a Sustainable Future (added October 3) – providing access to a consolidated set of exercises and workshops which can be used to prioritize and select Grade 8 appropriate exercises.
Kortright Centre (added October 4) – providing access to hands on experiences of solutions they have already deployed in Vaughan Ontario, as well as experiences they have documented for other Conservation Centers around the world
The use of volunteers within the schools and the quantified energy consumption reduction costs will make the deployment self sufficient, once the start-up costs of the project have been paid for.
Comments
Volunteers?
Partnerships are very important to building the capacity of any project. The world is made a better place by volunteers. Using volunteers to rate brings a whole new aspect to the project.
It is paramount to use people's advice and suggestions to improve ones project. Volunteers bring a whole level of expertise that we could not afford otherwise.
Volunteers?
Yes, volunteers do help the world go round; they are need. Their insight does bring a different aspect and light to endeavors, which should never be discounted.
Unfortunately relying on volunteers has drawbacks, you get what you pay for, and the chances of a lack of accountability are increased with out reward.
Does the state of the economy support volunteerism as in previous years?
Give volunteers better rewards / incentives.
inter - school collaboration
I like how the schools will have a way to compare their interactions with the enviorment I dont like how this prject relies on vollonteers because in the llong run a stong relience on volonteers may cause the program to fail because of a labor shortage.
i think that you need to make it more apperant as to what the diffrences with the original (bronze-platinum) system.
but still a great idea
Differences
The differences between the original system and this one are many. The hope is that the plan will have students not just checking to see if things are done but actually doing some collection and analysis to prove they are done. The students willl be able to draw comparisons through the use of data. Comparisons can be made between the two schools in Toronto and the schools in Israel.
Students should be drawing coparisons from data in their own homes. It would be great if they then applied the same principles to their homes and learned ways to improve their energy consumption.
Measurement
The current EcoSchool system (Platinum--> Gold --> Silver--.Bronze) relies on a point system based on qualitative measurements (ie how many tick marks earned)
We would propose the ranking based on amount of energy saved looking at a comparison of 12 month periods and normalized on a per student and/or per square foot basis.
When using measured kilowatt hours of electricity, m3 of Narual gas and m3 of water.
If other meterics are agreed to and can be measured in a similar way quantitative measurement would be in place.
An Idea From Round 1 - Giving this project a catchy name
As was proposed in Round 1, this proposal needs a catchy name, so it is quickly understood
The catchy name would have to clearly call out the attributes of this proposal
Inter-school - The proposal is meant to be executed between schools
Collaboration - The schools / classes need to brainstorm and come up with ideas together.
Conservation - the projects have to lead to reduced consumption, or the use of less resources to produce something
Quantification - Any project must have metrics which can be measured before & after.
Anyone have an idea as to how to shorten the description?
name games....
Quill Con: Quantifying inter-school collaboration for conservation
Quicc: Quantifying inter-school collaboration for conservation
Conedu Quantify: Collaborative inter-school conservation projects quantified.
Concoll Schools: Schools collaborating to create quantifiable conservation projects.
School Conserve/Eduquant/Educonserve....
Excellent idea - like that you're targeting 8th graders but it will have to be implemented early in the school year if you want to influence their secondary school decisions as these are finalized in Jan/Feb of the Grade 8 year.
Early Implementation
It is always a good idea to implement things early in the year. The students will need a fair bit of background information to make this a worthwhile project. Students should be able to make decisions about secondary school regardless of their findings. There are enough areas in the curriculum that will lend themselves to further studies in this area.
Allies Against Acronyms (AAA)
Those names are fun, but are pretty nonsensical to adults and 8th graders alike. I'd suggest something a bit more catchy related to the goals of the project and not the methods.
A bit of consultation from a marketing specialist or designer would help the appeal value of the project.
School Co-ops
How can we build the sustainable Montessori School of the future.
It would be grand if all the children in all the schools worked together to build cleaner, stronger more sustainable schools for the future!
It is great that their is a new approach that inter schools are taking to measure the metrics of the carbon savings of the actions of the kids in schools in neighbourhoods, cities and provinces and even countries.
It is possible to track Carbon life embodiment scales with calculators that exist like your partners at Zero Carbon.
The measurement of empirical data must be tracked with quantitative testing that is often repetitive and time consuming...so why not let the kids do the counting.
What tactical measures in marketing will you spin with your network?
How can you leverage aspects of the Education system and the media world's to introduce Inter schools?
Catchy Name. School Co-ops
new name
A new catchy name could be: ICS (Interschool Climate Spark) or ICSC (Interschool Climate Spark Competition)
I like thoses ideas. I really
I like thoses ideas. I really think someone should change the name
Inter-school ClimateSpark
Perhaps this type of brainstorming could be the topic of Climatespark School Challenge - a third running of this contest
in the interim, these conversations / ideas generated by the grade 8 students could be captured / shared / improved on the "Inconvenient Youth" website, which is run by 12-18 year oldshttp://bit.ly/climatereality-inconvenientyouth-actions
Name Change
Perhaps this type of brainstorming could be the topic of a Climatespark School Challenge - a third running of this contest
in the interim, these conversations / ideas generated by the grade 8 students could be captured / shared / improved on the "Inconvenient Youth" website, which is run by 12-18 year olds
Perhaps this type of brainstorming could be the topic of Climatespark School Challenge - a third running of this contest.
JA for the environment
This proposal reminds me a lot of the Junior Achievement program run in highschools, only for the climate instead of business. I think it's great idea, though it'd be even more effective at a slightly older age, perhaps grades 10 and 11. I think that's around the age when kids really start to think about how their surroundings are affected by their actions.
Perhaps in the future you can strike a partnership with the people doing JA?
Never too young to be energy conscious!
I think that the younger the students are, the more easily they can be influenced about the need for energy conservation. The project can easily be brought to their level. Our goal is to have students thinking about their surroundings and how they are affected by their actions in elementary school. The Junior Ahievement model certainly has some aspects to it that we could learn from. It will be interesting to study their model and see how we can duplicate their success.
JA for the enviorment
i think grade 8 is plenty old enough. (sorry about my spelling) you dont need to be in high school to have critical thinking skills. we have 21 centure learning power here at RHA so i think we are up for the challenge ;)
Names
How about:
The Energy Challenge
Rock the Bulb
Conserve-athon
Watt-athon
Energy Idol (i.e.Americal Idol)
Green Idol
The G Prize / The E Prize
The G Factor / The E Factor
Great Idea - I'm Jealous - Can you talk to my school about this
It is a great idea, as a Grade 7 student I wish our school would be doing this
The campus I attended was an ecoschool for JK-Grade 5, but the effort never carried forward to the middle school I am now in. Perhaps you can work with the principle of the North campus of my school, to join forces on this effort.
Partnership
I think we would like to conduct our project on a small scale first.
We would like to expand our project to include all Toronto Jewish Day Schools in the next year. We will learn a lot from our experience and will then be able to invite others to join with us.
I agree with this! The more
I agree with this! The more people we have, the more we can change!!!
Business case and carbon reduction potential
Hi Students, Alumni, Staff and Parents - congraulations on being in the top 20! I'm wondering if you can provide a bit more detail regarding:
Business case - quantification is very important and very revealing. But it could possibly show that many opportunities for emission reduction take some investment - from small - signage to support behaviour change - to larger - investments in energy management systems or energy efficiency upgrades for the school buildings. How would these investments be paid for?
Carbon emissions - without knowing specifically what actions this work will lead to, it is very difficult to make the case regarding how much carbon this project could stimulate across Toronto - something that is a critical evaluation component for this contest. Can you give this some thought and provide us some feedback regarding this point?
Getting EcoSchool attention for this entry
This proposal draws attention to the need to satify those who are not bought into the EcoSchool program or who find it too prescriptive.
If we could find a way for the people who drive EcoSchools to answer some of the points raised here, there is an opportunity for a better discussion and development of new approaches to quantification, and having schools collaobrate with each other on strategies rather than having it "prescribed"
quantification
We are committed to changing our business model to encompass these costs. Ulitmately we feel that we will be able to find ways to save money from this student gathered information. Stiudents will have this as a critical thinking question and will use criteria to weigh out what should be done.
I think the interschool and
I think the interschool and community collaboration is excellent. It is a model that teachers the students to work outside their own natural community -- a good model for life. This has the potential to have significant impact on the community and on individual students -- students will be empowered to make a difference and that has real impact.
Agree that a catchier name would be beneficial!
I think that convincing other
I think that convincing other people from other schools to help the environment is an amazing idea!
Strengths:
Strengths:
Great concept to show how everybody can make a difference
Like the competitive aspect
Great way to build school spirit around the environment.
Very empowering to the participants.
Weakness:
Needs a better name
start it with younger grades.
Younger students
As the project unfolds it will be easy to see how to begin this integrated into the curriculum at much younger grades. It can be a difficult process if not presented in simple enough steps and language. Kindergarten and Grade One students can begin just with an awareness of the environment and their simple impact on it. We can certainy build from there.
Collaborating with groups like Kortright to build a curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade 8 that can be integrated into many subject areas. Awareness and back ground knowledge will be very important to the process.
should be part of all school curriculums
This is a great opportunity for students to learn to be global citizens and build awareness of energy conservation and the enviornment. It should be made mandatory for all school curriculums to include. It is a hands on experience that will engage students.
good idea, but this needs to
good idea, but this needs to be taken a step further to figure out what we should do after you've quantified.
Provide next steps to students.
What to do next?
Quantification provides the baseline
Operations shows the students samples of all the lighting installed (a finite list)
Students will:
- count up the bulbs in each classroom / location / zone
- identify occupancy schedule of the room
- measure how long lights are left on
If Grade 8 - class 801 discovers that:
-there are 36 - T12 florescent lights per classroom
-Each light is consuming 35W + Ballast consumption
- Each classroom lights are on 8 hours a day
- the room is heated to 70 degrees, even when the room is unoccupied
- the room is cooled to 72 degrees, even when the room is unoccupied
What are the available change strategies?
- T12 -->T8/ T5,
- Turn lights off if natural light is available in sufficient quantity
- turn lights off for 1 hour between morning and afternoon classes
- turn lights off when the room is unoccupied
- turn the temperature up higher in the cooling months, and restart cooling again an hour before the room is scheduled to be used
- turn the temperature down lower in the heating months, and restart heating 1 hour before the room is scheduled to be used
From this information:
- calculate the decrease in the connected load T12 watts - T8 or T5 Watts
- Calculate the decrease in consumption
- kilowatt hours based on reduced consumption (reduce watts x reduced occupancy hours)
-m3 natural gas / electricity reduced consumed (delta degrees setback/setup x number of hours un-occupied .. and get statistics from utility provided cases)
- capture external temperature date from the Environment Canada database (degree days - heating, degree days cooling)
Lastly, look at what is happening to consumption trends when comparing 12 month windows of data.
The name must change!
I feel that the name of the project does effect the appeal and how easy or hard it is to promote the project is.
I feel that maybe if the two schools met we could brainstorm names and vote on the best contendor.
Good Idea
its so amazing that 2 schools are working together on such an amazing activity and helping the enviroment!!
we need to come up with ideas!
we need to have an inter school meeting to discuss our ideas and thoughts on the project.
maybe the administrations for the schools could arrange something
no rha! the best school ever!
WE CAN IMPROVE OUR EDUCATION BY WORKING ON THIS WEBSITE AND CO-OPERATING TOGETHER AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON OUR SCHOOL AND OTHER SCHOOLS
BY CHANGING THE NAME OF THE PROJECT.. FAR TOO LONG :(
best idea!
this idea is so smart, it shows how collaboration and teamwork goes such a long way
BY CHANGING THE NAME OF THE PROPOSAL TO SOMETHING BETTER
name is far too long
the name for the team must be changed. Yes, the name makes us sound very smart but it is very long and complex and very, very hard to promote.
we need to find an appropriate way to change the name.
new name
I think that the name is way to long and complicated. Maybe we should change it to something much shorter. For example, how about ICS for Interschool Climate Spark?
OUTSTANDING IDEA!
This is an outstanding idea! It should win for sure!
i think that the two schools should arrange a meeting so that the kids can discuss and come up with more ideas for this project.
collaboration!
Ally, I feel that the schools meeting together is great idea!
we could talk to our student councel and possibly arrange something
School Collaboration
I think it is a good plan for the schools to meet but we should collect a little data and have some things to discuss and compare. Each of our buildings is different and has different needs. We may find that one school is much more energy conscience than the other one.
There should be an outline prepared for both schools to gather information that can be compared. It is imperative that we compare apples to apples.
name change
maybe we could call the project: children helping climate. chc for short. It is a very short and easy name to remember
I dont know how others would feel about the name I made but I think it is a good place to start.
BEST IDEA EVER!!!
i think this idea is amazing and our school and LEO BAECK will be represented very well. THE NAME COULD USE SOME WORK THOUGH...
IT CAN BE IMPROVED IF WE CHANGE THE NAME AND WORK TOGETHER
Climate.
I am deeply concerned about the change of climate and I am very happy that our school is collaborating to help the environment!
we need to meet as agroup and discuss our ideas
ideas need to be discussed
I strongly feel that the schools need to collaborate and generate smart and efficent ways to save energy.
I feel that the schools must actually meet and discuss how we will conduct our selves to create out ideas
THIS IDEA IS AMAZING!
THIS SHOWS THAT TEAMWORK AND CO-OPERATION. IT IS SO ORGANIZED AND SUCH A GOOD AQCTIVITY.
THIS IDEA CAN BE IMPROVED WITH CHANGING THE NAME, THIS MUST BE DONE...
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA.. GO RHA!
THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THIS IDEA IS THAT THERE IS A OF POTENTIAL IN THIS ACTIVITY, BUT THE NAME IS TOO LONG. IT IS A VERY GOOD IDEA, BUT NEEDS SOME WORK..
BY CHANGING THE NAME OF THE ACTIVITY, THIS WILL BE MORE APPEALING TO PEOPLE.
Grade 8 Students have a Great Project!
The international dimension of the Inter-School Collaboration for Conservation Quantification proposal is very important. The idea of linking up outside of Toronto and sharing ideas and stories is very important. Also the connect to http://www.zerofootprint.net/ and http://www.climatereality.ca/ make a very good fit as well. This idea of sharing stories and ideas is at the heart of the GreenHeroes Campaign and it stories like this that we want to tell the world. We wish this project all the success!
One idea might be to actually propose some smart screens (perhaps they could be donated) and be able to monitor certain energy flows in real time - In York Region one of the Highschool districts is doing this and Students in different classrooms compete to use the least amount of energy.
New Name of Project
Greenfactor
Environment
we are not recycling which will lead to global warming
we need to follow the rules and respect the environment
Name
The name needs to be improved
by taking a poll of names
Change the name
Strengths:
Catchier, sticks in your head, makes you remember it better
Interschool Colaboration??? Huh???
This name is long and confusing! Who would vote for us if we have a name like this??
We need a better name! What about "Go Green" or "The Green Machine"
new name
We need a better name maybe "Go green and dont me mean"
hahahah i like that one! It's
hahahah i like that one! It's funny and serious at the same time!!!
Problems
This project should be shared to more schools
put up posters
We already use so much energy
We already use so much energy and this way we can cut down for our school and environment
Confusing Title...?
We should change the name of our school's name in this competition, so people will understand what we stand for more easily!
NAME
not a very smart name i think it should be improved
should be named the STIX AT LUNCH GREEN FACTOR
What about a new name?
I think that this is very wonderful program and it is a great idea, but looking at our school's name, it just confuses me about what this program really is about. I think maybe something like: The green project or Going green one school at a time
A NEW NAME
Inter-School Collaboration
I think that this idea of Inter-School Collaboratoin is a wonderful idea. Lots of people will like to apply this to our school and city. This is the Green factor. Which is something like unplugging any electronics when you are not using them or not using so much battery on your computer so you have to charge it so often and use so much electricity and energy.
Green Factor idea. Witch would be something like unplugging any electronics when you are not using them or not using so much battery on your computer so you have to charge it so often and use so much electricity and energy.
Cutting down on the amount of energy we use by:
recycling
throwing garbage in garbage
Walking instead of driving
A name that people understand
Like Green-School
Recycling
how van we recycle
we can recycle our stix sticks after were finished
Energy
Solar power may cost a lot now, but it could help in the future and save money for the school and our fossil futures now.
Recycling
Our school needs more recycling!!!
Put more bins in the school!!!!
Name
NAME
bad name
The lime Green Factor
Awesome
By doing this project it will benefit our school in the long run
This is a really good idea to
This is a really good idea to get schools together
advertisement
i think that this project should be more advertised so more people may vote
we can put internet ads and place signs on builiding or make tv commercials
awesome idea
This idea is fantastic! It gives the students from one school an oppurtunity to connect and socialize. It will also help our environment and if this program spreads (which hopefully it will) it will help the whole world.
great idea! so amazing!
i think this contest is such a smart idea. it is a way that students AND parents can get involved and cheer for their school!
the way to improve this is to change the name, because this will truly make the contest so much better. I think that that is the only problem with this idea.
Good
i think that this project should be more active!!
maybe give some activties to the schools so that the kids can do activities invlolving this idea and will get a better understanding of this project!!
Great idea! Perfect for
Great idea! Perfect for students to have the knowledge! This is a very good way to interact with kids our age in Israel.
I think that what we are
I think that what we are doing as a school is a great idea for us (teenagers) to understand more about enviornment
Maybe it can be more interactive so we dont only have to do this on the computer
If we encourage each other to
If we encourage each other to always turn off the lights and shut down the computers and smatrboards then we will help save a lot of energy! We are looking forward to participating in this contest with the other schools. Wish you all the best!
name
the name isnt very intelligent i think it should be something cool and interesting like THE GREEN CHALLENGE or THE GREEN FACTOR
-We can use more double sided
-We can use more double sided paper for work
-We should have more recyling bins for everything, not just paper
-Good website
-We can all make a difference to this cause when we work together
We should try and change the name of the proposal.
SUCH A GOOD CONTEST!
THIS CONTEST IS AWAY FOR GRADE 8 STUDENTS TO GET INVOLVED, ADN FOR THEIR TEACHERS AND PARENTS TO ALSO GET INVOLVED. I THINK THAT IF WE ENDED UP WINNING THE $50,000, IT WOULD MAKE OUR SCHOOL SOOOO MUCH BETTER!
THIS PROPOSAL CAN BE IMPROVED BY GETTING THE MESSAGE ACCROSS TO MORE KIDS, MAYBE BY ADVERTISING IT? THAT WOULD HELP SO MANY KIDS GET INTO THE ACTION.
Advertising
I think advertising would be a very expensive way to get others involved. The students work and commitment regardless of whether we win would help make the school better. It would be wonderful to win but the learning is also important, Engaging other schools and students could be done in so many ways besides advertising.
It is nice to see that students are interested and think this proposal is a good plan.
The students could do two things to engage others. They could set up a facebook page where students would read about their findings and be encouraaged to join their group. They could also set up teams that would go around to other schools and talk about what they have done and what they have learned. They could then challenge them to join them in their venture. This would help them learn some others skills as well.
The strengths are that it is
The strengths are that it is proactive towards helping the environment and it makes a positive impact into the way we use energy.
Name
the name should be more fun
give it a cool name that everyone would like example THE ENVIRONMENT CHALLENGE
Great Idea!!!
Great Idea!!! Its amazing that students in Toronto can work together with Israel. It is going to be great. With this idea, we can make the world a better place.
I would like to change the name to something I can pronounce.
Such a good Contest
THIS CONTEST IS AWAY FOR GRADE 8 STUDENTS TO GET INVOLVED, ADN FOR THEIR TEACHERS AND PARENTS TO ALSO GET INVOLVED. I THINK THAT IF WE ENDED UP WINNING THE $50,000, IT WOULD MAKE OUR SCHOOL SOOOO MUCH BETTER
THIS PROPOSAL CAN BE IMPROVED BY GETTING THE MESSAGE ACCROSS TO MORE KIDS, MAYBE BY ADVERTISING IT? THAT WOULD HELP SO MANY KIDS GET INTO THE ACTION.
ECO!!!!!!!!!!
The weakness is that the name is to long and hard for young people to understand something less complex and shorter would catch the eyes of other people. It is a great idea the program is great for ways to interact with Israel and around Toronto. With this program you can get people involved with things and not stand by while our world is being destroyed by the energy we consume and carbon we produce. Since I am young and want the world to be here for me as I get older and for generations to come, the more we do now to stop what we have done before our time!!!!
The name should be changed and differnet things like turning off lights and things like that should be given so people can get started today!!!!!!!!
Great idea!!!
Great idea!!!
I hope as we all get older we
I hope as we all get older we can contribute to saving electricity and then teach our children to do the same.
eco challenge
I think that it is a good idea to educate teachers and students about the amount of energy we consume so that we can each see how much energy we really use. Also so that we can see if we need to use less energy and try to improve.
I think this proposal could be improved if the name is changed to something shorter.
We can encourage the whole
We can encourage the whole school to car pool and take the bus to school to save gas.
More recycling bins placed in each classroom.
Great website. I like it.
I am excited to work in this project with Israel and other schools.
Reccomend changing the name of this proposal.
Hard to pronounce the name.
This is a very interesting
This is a very interesting idea. The prospect of empowering youth and bringing ecological awareness to every level of education seems quite promising. If it is successful, this movement could create some sort of ripple effect which could spread to youth all over the world. However, it is quite ambitious. But, then again, the idea needs ambition in order to succeed.
This proposal could defintely be improved if the name was improved/shortened.
THIS PROPOSAL IS A GREAT IDEA!
I THINK THAT THE FACT THAT GRADE 8 STUDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO COMPETE IN THIS CONTEST, IT HELPS MOTIVATES US, AND MAKES US FEEL LIKE ADULTS
THIS PROPOSAL CAN BE IMPROVED BY L;ETTING KIDS PICK THE NAME, TO GIVE US SOME POWER.
student councils?
maybe the student councils could meet instead of the whole school.
I dont think that the idea could be improved
eco challenge
I think that it is a very good idea to do this. It will benefit the schools as a whole. I believe that this proposal will really work. It will promote awareness of reducing energy. I think that partnering with another school will be very good to help promote awareness of energy consumption because it will give students a chance to work with other kids their age and come up with many great ways to reduce energy consumption. We hope to improve our schools eco awareness and to cut down on our energy consuption.
Eco Challenge
I think that this proposal is a good idea because it will benifet the school and the community that we live in as a whole. I think that this proposal will bring more awarness about reducing energy. I think that its a good idea that we are doing this between two schools because then we can work together to create as much awarness as possible. Hopefully new people will want to make a difference.
Eco Challenge
I think that this is a good proposal because we would like to win the money and use it to bring down energy consumption and help the world. It benefits both our school and the community that we live in. RHA and Leo Baeck will work together to make sure that the world we live saves as much energy as possible. It will bring awareness about what we are trying to do and hopefully many people will start to save more energy.
Eco Challenge
It is an interest to me because helping the enviorment is something I like to do and would like to teach my kids when I get older. It is a really great way to motivate us into being eco friendly.
It could be improved if the name was changed to a maybe shorter name.
Eco Challenge -- Very interesting
This proposal is very interesting. The many strengths include uniting the schools involved and saving our enviroment. This would make our school more greeen and would also teach our students more about energy efficiency.
This proposal does not require any improvement.
this would help students be
this would help students be aware of how much energy we are using. we could us e energy efficiant light bulbs and many other things that we dont even realize could help us be more eco friendly.
this could be improved by adding other schools to this idea. it will create an eco awareness society within the schools. it could go even further and further until the whole country has been united in eco awareness.
THE ECO CHALLENGE <3
i think its good because it motivates us to be more eco.
the weaknesses are that some people don't really care for this issue.
the names to long :)
what will happen with the proposal?
I hope that after this, the school will become more eco friendly and teach the students with more eco friendly objects, and making the shcool more green by the day by planting more trees, and by using less electronics every day. I also thing that this propasal will unite schools together to become more eco friendly.
This proposal is a very good
This proposal is a very good idea. RHA will hope to put it toward eco friendly uses. We will buy energy effeicent lightbulbs to use in our school. We can enforce more recylcing and use more double sided papers. This will make our school much more green. The students at RHA will learn a lot through this program.
If our school wins the money
If our school wins the money we hope to improve the environment and save alot of energy. We wiill REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE. We can use eco friendly items such as lightbulbs. This would make our school much more green and this will help us become more eco friendly. PLEASE LET US WIN. THANKYOU
Our project will really
Our project will really benefit us all. Being an eco friendly school will help our planet become a better place for all of us to live in the future. Learning about how to be more eco friendly will not only help our school, but we can use our new knowledge at home and really make a difference.
Eco Challenge
I think the proposal is good because it benefits us and our community. This is helping students understand about being Eco and reduce energy consumtion. This is a great way for our school to get involved and be rewarded for being environmentally friendly.
The name is way to long.
If RHA wins the money, then
If RHA wins the money, then it will help them carry through with their project and teach the children how to be more eco-friendly so that the children will be able to reduce their carbon footprints. The will make children aware of the horrors of global warming and hopefully teach their families.
Our project will help raise
Our project will help raise awareness of the environment throughout the school and will teach student how to conserve enerey,water etc... By doing this project together with Leo Baeck we are decreasing our impact on the environment together. Also in the end everyone
This proposal will keep our
This proposal will keep our school involved in being eco and then going to our families and passing the eco message on. It will keep us from not wasting as much energy and paper and noticing what we have been doing wrong and why our world is not that eco friendly. If we all work together as a team we can get the job done and then we will have no weaknesses and only strengths.
I think that our proposal could be improved by turning off all of the lights when we leave a classroom. We could also use a computer for writing a paragraph or essay instead of writing them by hand because the computer has different fonts and letter sizes so we could use less paper. We could all go home and teach or families about what we are learning now in school about being eco so that they could contribute to the school environment, outside of school, and help us win the money to share with Leo Baeck to become more eco and buy thigs for our schools so that we could continue being eco even when the challenge is finished.
Eco response
Our project would help considerably in the enviornment. Seeing as the program is interschool, we will make a difference not only in one school but in both RHA and Leo Baeck. We are all eager to see how it turns out and I hope that everyone would support this project. Being eco is something we need to seriously think about because if we don't act now, in the future our world will be a disaster. I believe that this project would be the best way to help, showing everyone how to be more eco with eco lightbulbs and simple ways to be eco in everyday life.
We need to work together with
We need to work together with other schools around the world to save our planet for future generations the population of the world is growing and everyone needs to lower there consumption and end global warming. This idea is very smart and could grow to become very succsesful. By working with schools kids grow up to understand how to help the environment.
This idea sounds very
This idea sounds very interesting. I think the idea of uniting all the school for this project is brilliant.
I think this proposal is very
I think this proposal is very strong and it would help the schools become more aware about how we can be more eco.
I think that this proposal can be improved by adding more to the idea. i think that we can add more to this and add more schools. it could be extremely beneficail for this proposal.
Nothing Special
I want the school to learn more ways on being more eco friendly
If the name was changed completely because it is a horrible name and is extremely long.
Scaling
It is great to see so many students interested in this initiative.
Once a model has been developed, has the team considered expanding to cover more school districts? An independent organization could oversee rankings for all of Canada!
More discussion
We need some of the Climatespark funding to work with Learning for Sustainable Future at york university, to identify quantitative exercisesthat have proven successful around the world.
Our schools are not publicly funded.
If you could help get the current EcoSchools group who are publicly funded, connected to this discussion before the public discussion is shut off on November 15th 5pm, that would help
If we make the Top 10, we would request that the organizers of the December 7-8 ClimateSpark Accelerate session invite a representative from the EcoSchools program - both the TDSB version and the Ontario version, to clearly articulate exercises they have documented which are completely quantitative.
I think this is a great
I think this is a great proposal. It is important for everyone to help get involved in saving our environment. I like the idea of collaborating schools. This is a great idea and hopefully it is step one on our misson to save the world and become economically aware.
I think the name is way too long and not very catchy. It doesn't pop out.
New Name
Green-Spark
Gets parents involved
Gets parents involved
We could use more energy efficent lightbulbs and not have the lights on when it is sunny outside and just open the windows
What measured impact would energy efficient bulbs have
Weakness: do you know how much energy the existing bulbs consume? in order to justify energy efficient bulbs, you need to measure what is currently there, how long the bulb is on, and the lifespan of the new bulb vs. the old bulb
establish baseline consuption and room occupancy schedule so you can quantify the efficiency and impact
Ways we could be eco is:
Ways we could be eco is:
Reducing, Reusing, Recycling
Taking the Bus or Carpooling
Using reusable water bottles
Driving hybrid cars will even
Driving hybrid cars will even cut down are carbon footprint
I think setting back heating
I think setting back heating and cooling is a smart idea
name
The name is too long and not an interesting name. When someones scrolling through the list of articles to read one they wont be interested in reading "Inter-School Collaboration for conservation Quantification" but if you find a catchier more interesting name they will want to read it and once they read it they'll be interested in it.
Its a great idea but it needs a better name that when people see the name of the article they'll be drawn into reading it. I think a great name would be "The Co-op Green Team".
I like how this group is
I like how this group is working together and collaborting with other groups
Try to colaborate with not just schools but with buisnesses aswell
Collaboration
I definately agree that we should be collaborating with businesses as well. At this point we are trying to work with a number of environmental organizations.
Alliances could be built with businesses that produce environmentally friendly products. Maybe they would give us money to be able to do our own measurement if we begin to use their products.
Other ways of transportation
If people would bike or walk, or even use public transportation more often to go short distances, it would save HUGE amounts of gas. Also if you do use a car to go to school then carpooling and taking as many people in your car as you can with you to school is good because then those people you take with you dont need to use their own cars which saves more gas.
An important point that
An important point that should be mentioned is about how people get around and that people should bike and walk more places. This will lower gas comsumption. It is something that can be done everyday by everyone and it will make a massive difference
Volunteers helping out in the
Volunteers helping out in the schools will help teach about global warming and other affects of human pollution
Energy Usage
It's hard to cut down on energy, being a school and all, but I think there are little things we can do that can save energy and make this planet a better place to live in. For example, the knew recycling bins are a big help, because now people can recycle cans, bottles, paper, and all other recyclable objects. We can't stop using energy altogether, but we can cut down on the amount we use!
Why are we doing this?? Tell us more!
I think that what we are doing is amazing because it has an effect on the whole planet. I do feel that we should know more about what we are doing and all the effects it has on our lives. Also, we should come up with some motivating ideas as to why we're doing this. No one will support us if we don't give them a reason to! We should all thing about a few reasons for why we are doing this. What we are doing is amazing, and everyone should know that!
Colaboration: Good
No one can do everything but everyone can do something
The fact that we are combining with other schools shows that there are a lot of people out there who support our cause
Strength: So important to
Strength: So important to understand our impact on our environment and how it affects us each at a local and global level
Weakness: Not really a weakness, but the Science curriculum is already very dense and difficult to complete in the course of the year. Does this proposal if it goes through replace existing material? Does it fit naturally or would time have to be taken from already valuable curriculum? Seems like it would require prioritizing...having said that, the Environment should be at the top of our list.
Natural Integration
We already cover the environment in elements of the grade 6-7 curriculum at LB and in grade 7 in RHA.
This could actually fall into math and data management in grade 8 to re-enforce lessons learned in earlier grades.
This should not burden the teaching staff if the grade 8 students take some ownership, and the administration empowers them by providing the quantitative consumption data for the overall school in a way that 12 month comparisons can be made. Existing weather data from Environment Canada can also be leveraged by the students, once they discover the website location of this data, and gain some knowledge on how external weather affect heating and cooling requirements.
Improving the Proposal
This is a great project in many ways. As others have suggested, a catchy name will be important. Collaboration between students is vital.
One of the challenges that could be dealt with is that both schools share their facilities in multi-purpose buildings. Thus approximate use of power must be determined unless both Leo Baeck and RHA are separately metered. But all this is vague and hard for students to grasp.
I would suggest that students tour their entire building to "give life to the statistics". They can roughly guesstimate--or at least now see what the numbers mean--when they are told the total area of their school as a percentage of the building. They could also learn if assuming that their school uses power in a manner directly proportional to the building is a valid hypothesis. For example, both buildings have large kitchen areas used by commercial caterers--surely students could see that these use more power than schools which have only forced air heating and a bit of AC.
In sum, the visual will make the students more thoughtful, and touring each other's buildings and using a scinetific eye will make them feel that the colloboration has a human face.
EcoSchools assume that all
EcoSchools assume that all buildings are owned by the school board / city - so the operations team can take consistent action across multiple buildings
Our building are not owned by the overall community - and each school is governed by a board of directors who must manage and understand the school operations, and reduce costs, to avoid operations costs spiralling and causing tuition to increase and make this type of school unaffordable.
,
Of the 2 schools each with 2 campuses
1 is a school building
3 are uses of a portion of a building (this will change in 2011-12 as one of the campuses will move into a school building)
For the campus operating in a school building - the data capture and analysis would need to connect back to what is observed as consumption on the bill
For the campuses operating within a building - the data capture and analysis could be used to confirm the amount that the school consumes, and quantify the percentage of the overall building in which the school operates.
Same date being captured, but used in very different ways.
I appreciate the effort to
I appreciate the effort to use a different metric that enables us to compare schools. However, has working wiht Eco-Schools/integarting with their cirriculum been considered? This could allow you to leverage some legitimacy and adminstration already set in place for this project.
I wish I had this in grade 8!
School Participation
If you can help get EcoSchools connected here to help on the quantitative side, that would be very useful
there are a number of school boards across Ontario who use EcoSchools but don't have full participation from all schools inside the board because both students and staff view EcoSchools as too qualitative.
to date, no one from EcoSchools has contributed to this open conversation, and explained how they deal with publicly funded schools or school boards who do not buy into ecoschools because students, teachers and administrators view the program as too prescriptive and qualitative.
this proposal can help schools move to a more meaningful student driven inter-school collaborative and quantitative approach.
EcoSchools was developed in early 2000's when social media was not in play.
As you can see by the 60+ students of our schools who participated in this conversation stream in round 2, there is value in listening to students and letting them collaborate, between school campused, between schools in the same system, between schools in different systems, and between schools in different countries.
Perhaps if a public school who is not bought into EcoSchools would join this effort, we could get something done for the next generation.
Partnerships
Good idea, At TREC we believe starting with education at the elementary school level is key to instilling responsible habits and changing our behaviour as a society. Maybe you could look into a partnership with TREC Education. They have award-winning programming and educate children from all ages on renewable energy and conservation. Using interactive workshops children get a real hand-on experiences and take away important lessons.
Educating the Young
Thats a great idea considering the tender age at which the students will be made aware of the social issue.That will make a lot of difference when they grow older. The school collaboration is an excellent idea because more and more students will get to converse with each other and thus the awareness will flow.
The proposal could be improved by awarding the students for their initiative in order to make the awareness.
great proposal for schools
it has a very good proposal for schools to work togther and save time and energy and share their veiws and idea to other people.
by advertising through media,flyers etc.
Great to have the involvement of the school students
It is very fruitful idea to engage the students from the grade 8 into the energy conservation. They are responsible enough to understand the importance of the energy conservation and pollution prevention.
Wonderful Idea !!!
Collaborating with schools and teaching a subject on saving energy is a very good thought.
Student will find it very interesting and will help them to learn more about power savings.
This will also help them to learne more about the climate impacts due to energy wasted and how to use the resources properly.
I think this project should be communicated to each and every schools .Interacting with the Teachers and Students will help them to know their views and opinions .This will help the team to excel in the project and implement properly .
Grade 8
I think that this can be a very good program for grade 8 because they will be able to focus on our school, reflect on their experiences in the school inorder to develop proposals on these issues. By branching out to other schools in the city and internationally they will be able open to other ideas, critically think and analize other programs and learn from them.
I suggest that we add ways to engage younger students, grades 6,5,4 in the program. Perhaps this way they will have background knowledge of the issues and can be involved in small ways leading up to grade 8.
Well Begun is Half Done
In the era when everybody is making hues and cries about global warming, depleting resources and ozone layer, it becomes fairly significant that teaching systems incorporate a systematic and practical methodologies of creating awareness at early stages of students' lives. It is a substantially innovative concept that creates an awreness about environment and enrgy conservation in the future generations at an early age.
It sounds good initially that all schools would participate and collaborate for this venture, but also the practical aspects of it and the mass awareness and reach need to be taken into consideration.
good commencement
This idea for giving knowlege to the grade 8 students is vey good . This means that students are given knowledge about the energy and its effect from the very basic level.it is like trees are given water at the roots so that it grows well , the same way is giving knowledge to students at grade 8 or teen age level.
The students should be given it as an activity so that they take it seriously and should learn from them.It can be given in exams for effective energy saving and their effects.Moreover debates over this issue on inter school level will work a lot !!
Great idea, but what's with
Great idea, but what's with the name?
The name must be reconsidered. I also think that the use of volunteers to staff the program could be problematic; I am sure that money could be found to provide ongoing funding for a staff person, if only to provide continuity.
what a great idea
Itls good to our future and create new evrionment for us .....
This is a really good project
This is a really good project because that it is based on schools which will encourage students to do it correctly ,but I think if the name can be concise and easy to understand, people may accept it more because they will like to read it and the possibility increases.
The earlier you start, the longer you have
Becasue this proposal deals with grade 8 students, the minds of the students are still fresh, ready to be filled with information on how to help the environment. If children learn at a young age, it means they will be able to build on it in the future
Completely
That is a very true comment and it only makes sense
Our Idea
I think that our idea is very impressive. It will help us learn to take care of our environment and how our actions have an impact on it. While doing this and collaborating with other schools, its makes an impact on many people at one time. I think that this idea will really help us better understand what it going on with the environment and what we can do to help
It can't
I think that you are totally
I think that you are totally right, and that this is a great proposal
We should expand the proposal, so that it includes even more grade 8's across Toronto
Our idea
I think that the school's idea is very smart and was very well thought through.
I think that the only way for it to be improved is by raising awarness. Also by getting more and more people involved it can only bring in more ideas!
keep adding ideas as we go
keep adding ideas as we go along... Theres always room for improvement, no matter how good the idea is.
Knowing how much energy we
Knowing how much energy we use can help us understand why we have to use less. We could maybe use lower voltage lightbulbs, we could unplug as many things as possible when we don't need them, and I'm sure there are plenty of other things we can do to help the environment
I agree!
That is a great idea further more we could focus on the unessesary thinkgs we are doing so we can prevent wasting electricity.
we could create a chart to see how much of each thing we are using.
A great project
I see a lot of talk about volunteers. I think that there is a dedicated and eager community ready and willing to give 100%.
It will be interesting to see the impact this has and how it branches out.
I think the impact on the
I think the impact on the students and how they look at energy from now one will change
A great project
i think that this is a great project because it is getting middle school students involved with helping our environment and we can learn a lot from the comments
change the name to something shorter
name choices
ISC Competition
Greenchallenge Factor
The E Challenhe
change it quick
Improvement.
The name of the projject is little bit large You should mae it short.Idea is quite Impressive but as compared to another project little bit impressive.
using less, saving more.
Maybe at school we can add up all the hours we spend with the computers on and turn them off when they are not in use. In addition when a coard is not in use we could unplug it instead of leaving it there, it would save A LOT of energy.
I think if we try hard enough we would be able to pull it off but it would take alot of devotion.
very nice idea.
This proposal is very good. It will have good impact on school students and climate also.
The concept of a
The concept of a collaborative effort is an excellent one and the biggest obstacle I see repeatedly discussed, to making investments into conservation and energy reduction is the ability to make the impact quanifiable. Addressing this, while initially an expense allows the project to demonstrate the impact. While the ROI on this step may be seen as a barrier, the proven impacts will demonstrate to others the actual calculated results. Being able to show others the MEASURED impact will allow for others to be able to make better decisions and present cases for proceeding with these type of initiatives.
Really do need to change the name, or at least add a short catchy name prior to the current tagline.
Good Project
Great Idea!
Strengths: All the support from collaborators
Weakness: N/A
Getting support from Public School Board
Public School Support
Since Ontario public and catholic schools are given the EcoSchools program, there is no motivation by them to improve it.
It is great to express the sentiment of getting public schools involved
Do you think you could help identify a public school which is not bought into Ontario EcoSchools or the original TDSB version of it, and have them join our effort focused on quantification.
Also, if you could get Ontario EcoSchools or the TDSB version of it to begin responding to this stream of conversation, before the cut off of November 15th 5PM that would be appreciated.
The message is the EcoSchools program has not taken the power of social media and collaboration into account.
This project, should it reach the Top 10 and final 3 would show a new student driven, collaborative and quantitative approach, between schools in the same board, between schools in different boards, and between schools in different countries, in contrast to the non-student focused, prescriptive, qualitative tick mark in box approachh currently out there for which a number of Ontario school boards are not bought in, and in some cases where school boards are bought in, there is less than a 50% participation rate of the publicly funded schools because the schools, students and staff are not bought into it.
We would love to have Public Schools participate with us in the future.
Whats happened to Eco Schools
What is stopping Eco-Schools from moving ahead?
There are over 1000 schools that have adopted the program and are trying to get the gold certification of a Eco-school requires manual based auditing that happens over a 3 month period in spring.
Why not all the time?
How will Inter-schools build the bridges to the TDSB and the other Public school boards in a streamlined way?
Why is Eco Schools have such a high rate of non participates?
What is stopping Inter-schools and Eco-Schools from co-collaboration?
Is this a internal thing, or a competitive thing?
Can we not work together and build bridges to solve problems together, quicker, faster?
Weakness: Why only grade 8s?
Weakness: Why only grade 8s? Wouldn't it be more empowering to include other grades?
grade eights
I think the school only included the grade eights because there will be follow up work and it is very mature to have the priviledge to coment where everyone can see and maybe the school feels that their grade eights would make the most intelligent comments. I think the whole school is involved but only the grade eights are commenting on the web page.
Maybe turn it in to a middle school project?
RHA
i think that RHA bathurst proposal was very intelligent because they talked about using a carbon footprint idea
name choices
The Big Green Challenge
Name choices
The G challenge
name choices
The G Factor
Incremental value of accuracy
Information is power, engagement breeds enthusiasm and action, and there is nothing more inspiring than movitated kids! Having individuals schools connected to other schools, locally and internationally, with a bit of healthy competition, is also an important mechanism to move the dial on energy use and spread knowledge and a committment to action.
There are various school-based initiatives, including EcoSchools -- how is this really innovative? different?
We have quite sophisticated equipment now that monitors power with great acuracy. Would it be cheaper and more accessible to have a bit less acuracy and perhaps more reach?
My view is that schools, and the school boards, have a responsibility to advance energy conservation post-haste, and many have already done significant analysis pointing to where action needs to be taken next. The challenge is more about financing than monitoring. Sure they should engage the students, teachers, janitorial staff, parents, etc. This type of project can be complimentary.
Not understanding the venture/sustainability model for this proposal.
More of the same
I have to agree with this comment. To me this proposal seems like it is after funding for a school project for specific schools and is not a social venture. I was under the impression that this challenge would be looking for new ideas in emerging areas, and this proposal doesn't seem to fill that requirement.
Like I mentioned above, it is great that the students have come out to support the project and boost it to first place, but I have to question whether this project belongs in this competition at all.
What is new about this proposal?
What is the social venture aspect?
This proposal enhances the
This proposal enhances the social venture aspect of the existing EcoSchool program by having schools collaborate to discover the quantitative efforts which they can take and measure impact, first at school and then at home
Collaboration / Discovery would progress as follows
- Within school campuses (416-416)
- Between school campuses (416-905)
- Between schools in different cities (416 – 905 / 519 / 705/ 613 etc)
- Between schools in different countries (416 – 011 33 / 44 / 972) There are various school-based initiatives, including EcoSchools -- how is this really innovative? different? In discussions with a number of organizations, and in the string of comments in ClimateSpark SVC Round 2 it is clear that there is a level of improvement which EcoSchools has yet to embrace.
There are Ontario Public, Catholic school boards and private schools which have embraced EcoSchools. There are schools within these boards, and a significant number of boards who have not.
Why?
A possible reason, the qualitative and prescriptive nature of the current EcoSchool construct.
What makes this innovative and different; collaboration, competition and quantification.
The proposal proposes the use of social media and collaboration tools to allow collaboration first between campuses of the same school, then between schools in the same city, and then between schools in different cities or countries. The students who have participated so far in this entry are just the tip of the iceberg.
The use of quantification, specifically of 3 energy consumption measurements around electricity, water and natural gas, the normalization based on number of students and/or the square footage of the building, or percentage of building occupied, serves as a starting point for discovery, not checklists.
We have quite sophisticated equipment now that monitors power with great accuracy. Would it be cheaper and more accessible to have a bit less accuracy and perhaps more reach?
Initially, we are proposing to use the consumption reported to our schools through utility bills as a baseline.
Toronto Hydro has not placed sophisticated power monitoring equipment in our schools, and our proposal does not start with this requirement, so we are aceving a level of accuracy through our consumption billing.
Most energy audits funded by the Ontario Power Authority through Local Distribution Companies, such as Toronto Hydro in the 416, start with the bills and the consumption reported on them and then move to what is connected to create the load being reported.
We intend to have the Grade 8 students build up a profile of what is consuming energy in all of its forms, within their own school. We then have them collaborate with Grade 8 counterparts in a different campus of the same school to compare approaches, and learn from each other. Then the students of both campuses compare and collaborate on best practices and discoveries with Grade 8 counterparts who have been developing their own quantification methods in other schools, first within the city, then with counterparts in other cities and countries.
None of this is currently in play with EcoSchool 1.0
My view is that schools, and the school boards, have a responsibility to advance energy conservation post-te, and many have already done significant analysis pointing to where action needs to be taken next.
Agreed, and most of that analysis sits in the Operations department, and is generally not shared or integrated with the educational side of the school.
Few schools have actually gone back to check quantitatively to see if the measures they’ve taken and for which hypothetical energy conservation amounts have been calculated, actually had the desired effect.
As the students develop their own understanding of this through this collaborative process, the exercise can transition to the home, where SmartMeters are deployed.
There is more learning opportunity depending on whether the student lives in a house, and apartment or a condominium. And as they collaborate with others in different cities and countries, more will be learned, and more will be conserved
The challenge is more about financing than monitoring. Sure they should engage the students, teachers, janitorial staff, parents, etc. This type of project can be complimentary.
Can you please elaborate on this comment, not sure we fully understand what you are getting at.
We are requesting financing to engage a team to identify current quantification methods used in schools around the country and around the world which would be shared as input for students going through the discovery process.
We are also seeking financing to develop modules which highlight the differences in climate issues between countries.
This team is also aware of the improvements needed to make EcoSchools 1.0 more engaging to students, who are now growing up in a world of social media and collaboration, and a world less accepting of prescriptive measures an completing of checklists.
We agree with you however that this project would lead to a potential EcoSchools 2.0, which would be a complementary upgrade to EcoSchools 1.0
We and a number of respondents have suggested that the current EcoSchools team comment on this proposal. Anything you can do to make this happen between now and November 15th 5PM would be appreciated.
Not understanding the venture/sustainability model for this proposal.
We hope that if this proposal makes the final 10 to be announced on November 18th, so that part of the December 7-8 ClimateSpark Accelerate session would help us flesh this out further.
Eco-schools and Eco-Challenges
I shake my head and wonder why and shake my head on how Club Peguin http://clubpenguin.com/
could have been sold for 800 million to Disney.
Comes down to for kids..."I am bored" if a child in school is bored with their work, teacher, parents they simple do their own thing.
But when a kid feels there is something to lose or gain... then maybe they will be more engaged to participate.
There are so many organizations to help teachers develop and share knowledge like http://knowledgeontario.ca/
As a researcher I marvel at the splinter mentality of groups in the non Profit realm and how the lack of funding has bred do gooders into hungry grant writers and needy people that can't even afford to pay bills.
Why is it that groups like http://www.charityvillage.com/ still can't help everyone who does great things for our society?
Why is it that we can't give teachers and students activation tools to get into the groove of saving the planet?
I think collaboration with Eco-Schools in some way is important.
How can you get the Eco-school people to particpate without seeing you as a threat?
This is a curriculum not a social venture
It would be a shame if private schools received public funding for their curriculum development which would otherwise go to support projects with more direct, greater impact and a hope of long-term viability. I wish you the best of luck with your worthwhile curriculum development initiative and I suggest your schools reach out to your immediate community to engage their support for this initiative. I feel that some earlier experts comments are unfairly supportive.
It's already being done. Don't seek support from beyond your existing community of support.
Curriculum is aimed at
Curriculum is aimed at educating and influencing students. Curriculum in support of energy conservation and environmental education can change attitudes of students, their parents and extended family and influence the communities in which they all live. In this way we believe that improving curriculum is a social venture.
In Ontario, private schools are obligated to follow Ontario curriculum. The current EcoSchools 1.0 is integrated with Ontario curriculum. However the fact that many public, catholic and private schools are not implementing EcoSchools is an indicator of a problem.
We believe that this proposal begins to address the issues that many of the non-participants schools and school boards are highlighting.
Would your comment be any different if some Public and Catholic schools, who see the same challenges with EcoSchools 1.0 were to join this proposal
Who are you defining as “your immediate community”. Since we use Ontario curriculum, should we assume that those responsible or EcoSchools and who receive funding to improve it should be reached out to.
We have been requesting assistance from the people running this crowdsourcing competition to get the EcoSchools team to comment.
Perhaps you can help make this happen before November 15th 5PM or if this entry makes it to the Top 10, ensure that representatives from EcoSchools participate as experts in the December 7-8 session.
Please elaborate on why you feel that “Expert” comments are unfairly supportive?
The only experts who have commented on this stream have asked critical questions and made positive suggestions about our entry.
Julia Langer - Incremental Value of accuracy
Winegust – What measured impact would energy efficient bulbs have
Winegust - Getting EcoSchool attention for this entry /comment/2588#comment-2588MPickering – Business case and carbon reduction potential
/comment/2018#comment-2018
Not convinced
I'm making the assumption that your schools are funded through fees - so please correct me if I am wrong.
It is obvious that a curriculum is not a social venture. Curricula do not generate financial resources to support social causes. Rather, private schools themselves, of which curricula are a part, generate financial resources to perpetuate themselves (arguably a social cause). If you could make the case that your community of support (i.e. the parents that pay for your schools) will see this new curriculum as enhancing the value they get from sending their kids, and will pay more for (or donate more for) this experience, then maybe (MAYBE) you could call this a social venture. Your proposal does not make this business case.
When I say connect with your existing community of support, I mean see your curriculum as a piece of the 'marketing mix' of what your private schools offer your customers. This implies not looking for money that is typically oriented to helping the less priviledged in the world (i.e. those who attend free schools). It means running a campaign among your current supporters to find more revenue to support your curriculum.
Why Quantification is Critical - To improve, you must measure...
Key strenghts are: 1) The goal: Energy conservation; 2) The approach: The power of many collaborative ideas; 3) The opportunity to show tangible improvements and make a difference.
A potential "weakness" is collective myopia. This is also called "the Abilene syndrome" after a family group that went on a "leisure" trip during a sweltering summer noon to an arid, dry, and dusty post in the middle of the Texas desert. Despite the boredom and discomfort, nobody dared to challenge the original group decision...
It is important to measure the right things. Quantitative measurements must also be done right.
From what I can see as an external observer, EcoSchools is a social venture embedded in the school curriculum, which should also be improved. To such purpose, it should employ a measurable, quantitative twist to generate renewed buy-in from existing participants and motivate those who are yet to get involved.
Counting light-bulbs and their comparative energy consumption is a step in the right direction. And there is still plenty of opportunity to measure other "right things." For example, computers and heating consume much more energy than light bulbs. Quantifying how many computer devices have "Energy Star" features and are configured to "hybernate" after a few minutes of inactivity would represent another meaningful example. Measuring the standard room temperature and quantifying any energy gains that could be attained by changing it a degree or two in the right direction will probably represent one of the most significant energy improvements. Taking several samples, and getting the facts right will be instrumental to prompt proper decision making.
Will students volunteer to
Will students volunteer to gather data on school time or ont heir own time as well? Can this be tied in to "tikkun olam"??
You could improve the project by gatehring more date and info. and compare between the 2 schools. A great collaborative project. Perhaps, shorten the name.
i think so..
I think both are already happening considering it is a student project at a jewish school. I think the project was not generated for the tikkun olam aspect but it could be tied in a way. The students are most definately gathering data because this project is for the students to lower the carbon foot print..
NEW NAME
GreenHeroes Supports New Curriculum
The core concept in the Inter-School proposal is around engaging students and developing new approaches to engergize communites to make strides in addressing climate change - and this proposal is indeed a social venture - finding resources to make pilot projects like Inter-School and generating ideas to create outreach into our local communities and abroad is very important. Resources are needed to test out ideas as pilot projects and then to take them to the next level. The Inter-School proposal is worthy in this regard and certainly resources are needed to make a pilot project like this move forward. Thus its relevance in the ClimateSpark Challenge. Once proven, the techniques piloted in the inter-school project could well be appliead across Toronto, accross Ontario and Canada and the world. GreenHeroes supports the idea that creating new curriculum is indeed a social venture. Creating new currciculum is an important and underresourced activity in this country.
One improvement to the proposal could be a concrete plan for how the findings and outcomes of the Inter-School proposal could be adapted to the entire city of Toronto or province of Ontario in terms of curriculum development - this is always a challenge and resoources are needed to this sort of work but in theory, Ontario could adopt the approaches piloted in the Inter-School proposal and could get behind the Inter-School findings and approach.
Interschool collaboration for conservation quantification
Strengths: collaboration among schools; involving grade 8 students as active partners; raising awareness about energy consumption and usage of resources, leading to change; empowerment of students and motivation for change will be increased.
adding technology
The proposal would be strengthened if there were a technology component.
It would be great to build an app that would allow the information that you are collecting to be input and tracked. This would be a great way to bring technology into the program and further engage students. I think it would be a way to further engage the grade 8 students.
Expand participants, reduce consumption
The strengths are that the students are being led by a group of teachers who know and understand energy consumption, so they will be able to guide the students and help them along with the project.
This proposal could be improved by expanding its reach. While the competition is limited to only the RHA grade eight students, there is an opportunity here to engage not only the entire student body, but also, each parent, grandparent and our alumni. We could have a much greater impact if we expand the scope of our participants.
A Collaborative effort
I am truly impressed with the idea of two schools working together on a project of this magnitude. Collaboration/partnerships provide a wonderful opportunity for sharing ideas, learning to work as a team and in this instance incorporating the best work/ideas that each schools group of students has to offer. When you consider that in addition the project chosen addresses something that can be so impactful and possibly cause a student to give thought to learning more about a particular subject, than I think you've accomplished a great deal. All in all, this is an excellent example of a collaborative approach to learning.
For me the one glaring weakness would be the name. As stated by others it is also my view that the name is much too long.
Engage the students in an opportunity to chose a name for this project.
I don't get it
I don't get it. Measuring things improves them? But what if I don't want to measure them? Or what if I don't care about my score. Seems to me green stuff is more about peoples values than what is measured. As well, you're going up against the biggest measurement of them all -- money.
Good luck with competing with money as the main measurement in society.
You're really on to something
I like the way you've taken common school programs and thought them through to make them more effective.
Maybe when kids leave schools they'll keep measuring themselves and it'll make a lot of difference in the world.
Having students make
Having students make classroom connections to their daily lives.
This sounds like a great idea. It may be beneficial to extend the grade eight student involvement, in addition to developing conservation efforts, to conducting an energy audit to help establish the in-school baseline consumption. By determining how exactly the school consumes the energy it does (lighting, air conditioning/heating, computers etc) they can identify areas with potential for energy reduction.
Great idea, we need to engage
Great idea, we need to engage children in a meaningful way in terms of impacting the environment. Start with grade 8 but extend more broadly to other grades over time.
Great idea, we need to engage children in a meaningful way in terms of impacting the environment. Start with grade 8 but extend more broadly to other grades over time.
Schooled
The concept is good but like others I also feel the name needs to be worked on.
Perhaps some level of competition among the schools would be added incentive to participate.
another step towards repairing the world
This important collaboration for energy conservation is yet another step that we are all trying to do towards saving this planet for future generations and teaching our students how to be better at that.
Marvelous idea!
I think it is a terrific idea to engage all the students in this project.
It is a wonderful idea. It
It is a wonderful idea. It is a good endeavour for the students to become more aware of the environment.
Schooling them
I agree it is useful to have it interactive with schools
Weakness: Is there funding available for making big changes to the school? (Lighting improvments in building envelope)
Prehaps some sort of colaberation with a level of government or a company to help with the funding for upgrades.
Great idea
This is an amazing and a unique opportunity for students, the leaders of tomorrow, to work together in order to better understand issues that will have a direct impact on their lives. The conservation of energy is an amazing place for our students to begin to study. It will also provide the students with a chance to work with students from different schools and learn from each other. These students are all going to share this world, they should start thinking about how to make it a better place now!
The ClimateSpark Social Venture Challenge is a project of:
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Inter-school collaboration
Great idea to collaborate. Weakness...use of volunteers to rate.