Classroom Energy Diet 2019

My grade 6 and 7 students are participating in the 2019 Classroom Energy Diet .  The challenge encourages classrooms across Canada to complete challenges to conserve energy and raise awareness about energy consumption.   We've learned quite a lot over the last several weeks and the challenges have inspired us to read, write, research and create!  I like that this kind of contest can be a springboard for meaningful learning or even project-based learning.    I wanted to share some of the great work my students have done as part of their contest.

Recycled Art

The task was to create art from recycling and my Grade 6/7 Character Education class rose to the challenge!  I kept this challenge fairly unstructured and let students plan their design, find the recycling items and develop their own creations as individuals or in small groups.   We ended up with a wonderful variety of art projects, including:  

• cardboard creations: a robot, a barn, a miniature city, Angry birds from toilet paper rolls
• cardboard canvases: students painted on recycled cardboard instead canvas or art paper
• paper mache from recycled newspaper
• pencil holders made from toilet paper rolls or plastic bottles
• a bird feeder made from a plastic bottle

One Hour, No Power

We've been turning off our lights, computers and power bars when we don't need to use devices to reduce energy consumption in our classroom and we challenged other classrooms to try it too! 

A student-created poster promoting One Hour, No Power

Energy-Saving Tips

For this challenge, we were tasked with researching energy-saving tips and sharing them in our school or online.   I provided a planning template to guide students in selecting a product to create, identifying a target audience and a platform for sharing.  Some students decided to create posters to share in our hallways and others created digital posters to share online.  One group wrote energy saving tips to share on our school's digital sign and another group presented to students at the elementary school.  One group launched a "game" and social media campaign - they posted small notes with energy-saving tips around the school and encouraged students to find the tips, photograph them and share them on social media.   

Energy Saving Tips inspired from @olcskinders.  @HamiotaSchools @Energy_Lit pic.twitter.com/ycE4VoUhlr

— Mrs. Obach's Class (@MrsObachsClass) April 11, 2019

Here are some tips for saving energy please share. #EnergyDietChallenge #parkwestSD pic.twitter.com/ZcDNDIwtuN

— Mrs. Obach's Class (@MrsObachsClass) April 10, 2019