Green Apple Day of Service at Boston Green Academy

By Ryan Duffy, Communications Fellow

Boston Green Academy's Report on its Green Apple Day of Service:

Boston Green Academy's 7th grade students participated in a Green Apple Day of Service, which focused on electricity conservation.  The service project ran over the course of 4 months. The school received a grant over a year ago to put an e-gauge on their electrical meter, but due to the limited ability of the Boston Public Schools facilities department, it took a full 1.5 years to actually get it installed.  The project culminated in an action project where the 7th graders will monitor and record the school's energy use and help the rest of Boston's schools reduce their electricity usage.

By December 2014, the students got the ball rolling.  Their 10th Grade Environmental Studies class created a lesson for the 7th graders on electricity, including: how energy is made, how it gets to our school and homes and how conserving energy can help fight climate change.  They then taught the lesson through the 7th grade science classes.  The 10th graders were really nervous, but the middle schoolers thought they were the coolest and definitely listened to them.  

March: The school's energy dashboard system finally went completely online in February.  The 7th graders had several lessons where they explored the energy dashboard website.  The students played games where they had to search the website and find answers.  This helped them become familiar with the website and also helped them equate kilowatt-hours to dollars spent to carbon dioxide emitted. The lessons will culminate in a big action project where the students monitor electricity usage and use that data to help the rest of the school's student body thoughtfully reduce their electricity usage over time.