Encourage your students to think outside the classroom and make positive changes in your school!

Our school is one of many Ontario Ecoschools, and there are lots of opportunities for STEM and STEAM learning through completing Ontario Ecoschools certification program! This year, our grade 6 class took the challenge of learning about classroom lighting use throughout our school, and took ownership of bringing awareness of how important it is to conserve energy by simply turning off the lights!

Our challenge began by completing the Classroom Lighting Assessment that is a free download from Ontario Ecoschools - link here: https://www.ontarioecoschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Classroom-Lighting-Assessment.pdf

There is an abundance of rich math in simply completing the assessment, as you will see! It also ties in well with the Grade 6 unit on Electricity!

When the assessment was completed, we had students break out into groups and decide on a course of action that they could take to make the school aware of our overuse of energy through lighting, and how to encourage natural lighting in classrooms. Some of the actions they took were:

• Earth Hour - we held a school-wide Earth Hour campaign. Students made posters and put them up around the school and made announcements for the daily announcement time. Classes were encouraged to have an hour of no electronics or lights! Classes who completed their own Earth Hour were encouraged to share pictures with us of what they did during their Earth Hour so we could award prizes (and our Ecoschool trophies) to classes who participated.
• School-wide Lights-Off Challenge - students relayed the Classroom Lighting Assessment results through daily announcements over the course of a month. They noticed that more and more classes were turning off their lights or leaving just one bank of lights on.
• Energy Hog campaign - our class started the Energy Hog campaign. We have a stuffed pig (that has shades on!) and the pig is placed in a room where the lights or Smartboard have been left on when no one is in the room (it is to be placed on the teacher's desk). The class who gets the Energy Hog has to find another class that has lights or Smartboard left on and then give the Hog to that class! The Energy Hog gets passed around for a couple of weeks and it helps to raise awareness of turning off the lights and Smartboard when leaving a room because you don't want to be the class that ends up with the Hog!!!
• Energy Conservation Tip Posters - some of our students made posters with tips on how to save electricity at home and at school and put them up all around the school.

Overall Assessment includes: Language, Science Expectations and Math Expectations:

• Reading: 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8
• Writing: 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.7, 2.8
• Media: 3.2, 3.4
• Oral and Visual Communication: 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.7
• Science - Electricity and Electrical Devices strand: 1.2, 2.7
• Math -select and justify the appropriate metric unit to measure length or distance in a given real-life situation; estimate, measure, and record quantities, using the metric measurement system; collect data by conducting an experiment to do with their environment, and record observations or measurements; read, describe, and interpret data; solve problems using multiplication and division using a variety of strategies; make connections among mathematical concepts and procedures, and relate mathematical ideas to situations drawn from other contexts; develop, select, and apply problem-solving strategies as they pose and solve problems and conduct investigations, to help deepen their mathematical understanding; develop and apply reasoning skills to make and investigate conjectures and construct and defend arguments; communicate mathematical thinking orally, visually, and in writing, using everyday language