GOOD WORKS
The Energy of Children With the help of APEGA professionals, a project at a Calgary charter school is helping build a more sustainable tomorrow. Students learn about the social, economic, and environmental challenges in energy choices — and they’re already changing their school and neighbourhood. Just imagine what they will accomplish as adults
BY CORINNE LUTTER Member & Internal Communications Coordinator
lesson plan went well beyond the basic reduce, reuse, and recycle model often taught in elementary schools. Besides teaching students about the impacts of climate change and the role of government in setting energy policy, presenters helped students explore topics like renewable and conventional energy, water and energy conservation, and sustainable design. Hands-on activities taught them how to read their home utility bills, how to figure out their carbon footprints, how carbon capture and storage technology works, and more. From knowledge came action, with students making positive environmental changes at their school, in their homes, and in the community. “Energy and sustainability are complex topics, but they represent critical challenges for this generation,” says Ms. McGarrigle, a renewable energy consultant with Solas Energy. “It’s important to have that dialogue with students, so that they’re literate and fluent in the language and can be part of the conversation. Climate change is probably the single largest issue that they will have to combat in their lifetimes.” Working with the students over several months, she was overwhelmed by their interest and passion. “I know that for a lot of adults, this stuff is really boring or too complicated, and they tune out. But the kids were just absorbing everything,” says Ms. McGarrigle. Ms. Avey agrees. “There were times you could hear a pin drop, the kids were
It’s not every day that Grade 4 students get to talk to a provincial cabinet minister about weighty topics
like energy policy and climate change. But that’s what happened earlier this year when a minister dropped by to chat with a group of nine- and 10-year-olds at Westmount Charter School in northwest Calgary. “There were some pretty hard-hitting questions aimed at him, too,” recalls Christine Avey, a teacher at the school for gifted children. The cabinet member was one of 17 energy experts from 24 industry and government organizations who visited Westmount last school year to help students better understand the complexities and challenges of energy sustainability. It was all part of a novel project, People for Energy and Environmental Literacy (PEEL), which gives students a broad perspective on the social, economic, and environmental ramifications of society’s energy choices. Professional Engineers and Profes- sional Geoscientists were represented in the presenter lineup, among them parent volunteer Paula McGarrigle, P.Eng. Her daughter, Ailish Olien, was one of the chil- dren in Ms. Avey’s class. Together, Ms. McGarrigle and Ms. Avey came up with the concept for PEEL. Their focus was sustainability — but their
so enthralled by the presentations.” That’s in a room of about 40 students from two Grade 4 classes at Westmount. Students from teacher Cayley Webber's class also took part. Many of the students were intrigued to learn about renewable energy technology like solar panels and wind turbines. “I’m excited, because there are businesses and companies that do use clean and renewable energy,” says one of them, Arianna Hu. “It just needs to be built on, to make a better community, a world full of clean energy. It makes me think that anything is possible in this modern world, and we can use that to save the environment.” Adds classmate Ben Gibson: “I think people should have hope, because there is remarkable technology that can make an advance in the future and help us change the current reality of energy usage in Alberta.”
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