Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon

I posted this in the CERT’s forum a week ago, but I thought I’d post it here so you all could read it and possible join in! =D Our next Light’s Out Day is March 27th if you all want to participate too! Let me know! Here it is:

If your looking for new ideas in order to better increase the sustainability of your school, here is one campaign that my environmental club at Eagle Ridge Junior High is working on:

[Note, it doesn’t really make sense the first time you read through it, so you may have to read it again.]

Light Out Day!
Once a month, we have a day where the entire school strives to turn their lights off. Our monthly process is:

1 month before we email all administration and staff about the day. We usually try to inspire them to do it by making it kind of dramatic. Here are two we sent out a few months ago. The first one was our very first email introducing the idea to all the staff, the second one was telling about the third Lights Out Day.

“Hi!

My name is Mark Rugnetta, and I am a 9th grade student at Eagle Ridge. I am also the president of Treehuggers, the Eagle Ridge Environmental Club.

If you were teaching at Eagle Ridge last year, you might remember Lights Out Day, where the school attempted to keep all the lights off for a day. We are planning on doing the same thing this year, but instead of just once a year, once a month.

Our first planned day is Friday, October 10th. On that day, please try your hardest to keep all your lights off in the classroom on that day. Turning off your lights can save energy, money, and keep the world a little greener.

I realize that it is a minor inconvenience to make a lesson plan that doesn’t include lights, but there are many ways to still make an educational day out of it. Some ideas include:

Taking your class outside for a lesson. I remember in math last year, we went outside one day and tried to predict the height of the building using skills we learned. (Angles, etc.) There are so many creative ways to have a class outdoors and still teach effectively. Teaching something like Spanish class outside could be really fun.

Opening your shades to let light in, and teach your class as normal.

Have a “get to know each other” type day, and talk about yourself to your students, what you’re doing that weekend, what the students are doing, interests, etc. Just knowing small details about students lives gives you a better connection with the student, and allows you to teach more effectively as the year goes on.

Hopefully a day of having the lights off will inspire you and your students to be more eco-friendly in the future.

And a note to administration, if possible, can we turn the lights off in the hallways, etc.?

I also understand that it might be hard without light to work during your prep time, but you could choose to go chat with another teacher, or share notes with another teacher in your academic field about a lesson plan you are planning. Try to be creative!

If you cannot think of any lesson plan that would fit in with your schedule that doesn’t involve lights, email me at soccergoal1002@aol.com and I can give you more specific suggestions.

If we see you with your lights off, you might even get a special treat!

Please email me before you decide not to participate! The environmental club may be able to think of an out-of-the-box way to make your lesson work with no lights!

Additionally, if you have any suggestions for other projects you think the Environmental Club should work on, please email me any ideas. We have a lot of ideas in motion, and I can’t wait to work more closely with the staff to try to make our school more eco-friendly.

Thanks so much, and hopefully you will participate in Lights Out Day on October 10th! =)
-Mark Rugnetta”

“Hi again!

It’s Mark Rugnetta, president of the Eagle Ridge Environmental Club!

I realize that it is not convenient for you to have your lights off all day. I realize it’s a sacrifice most do not want to make. But making that effort, making that sacrifice, truly means something. Every six hours, more than a million plastic cups are thrown away from airline flights just in the U.S. You know those plastic cups you get served on airlines? They are recyclable, yet are thrown away because the airlines don’t want to inconvenience themselves by making the effort to recycle the cups. Imagine one airline that starts a program that recycles those cups. It’s starts the ripple which triggers the tidal wave of change.

Soon, other airlines will start to recycle plastic cups. Then they all will. Soon, the millions of plastic cups that are wasted every year will be recycled.

America uses 40 million paper cups a day. Mostly for coffee. Most are recycled. But they can only reuse about 40% of the plastic or paper. 300 million people not making sacrifices by using something like a reusable metal coffee cup has a huge effect.

Paper, plastic water bottles, styrofoam trays, I can go on and on. We all love convenience. But convenience is slowly destroying the world. Simple sacrifices need to be made. Maybe you are not ready to take on a “green lifestyle” just yet, but you can make a difference. Turning off your lights for six hours once a month can make a difference. It can at least make a ripple. The ripple could turn into a splash, and the entire ISD 191 school district may participate in Lights Off Day once a month. The splash could turn into a wave if somehow we get all of Minnesota to participate. The wave could turn into a tsunami if somehow, all of America participated.

I am asking you to make a sacrifice. It may not be convenient to turn your lights off for a day, but please, for the sake of making a difference.

I am here for suggestions if you have no idea how to incorporate no lights for one day into your curriculum! A few teachers emailed me last month for ideas, and working together with the environmental club, we came up with some pretty amazing lesson plans that I hear from the teachers went extremely well. But when I took a walk around the school a few times that day, about 70% of the teachers had their lights off each time. This time, can we shoot for 100%? I really, genuinely thank all the teachers that participated last time. Thank you so much.

We will be handing out candy to all the teachers who turn there lights off again as well.

Please email me at soccergoal1002@aol.com if you need suggestions! The Environmental Club would be happy to work with you to organize a lesson plan that involves no lights. Additionally, if you have any green ideas for Eagle Ridge, email me!

I really urge you to turn your lights out on January 9th, the next Lights Out Day.

Be the ripple that starts the tidal wave. Please turn your lights off on January 9th.

Thanks,
Mark Rugnetta”

Super dramatic and a little bit cheesy, but it gets the point across! Feel free to use any and all of it for your own email!

3 weeks before [depends on publication timing], we have a little blurb in our school paper about it. Here is one we used:

Lights Out Day!
by the ERJH Environmental Club

January 9th! Remember that day! Write it down! It’s important! It’s the next Eagle Ridge Junior High Lights Out Day! Encourage your teachers to participate! They will get candy if they do! But more importantly, you can participate at home too! On Friday, January 9th, try to go as much as you can without turning your lights on! Tell your family to participate too! When you wake up, open up your window instead of turning your light on! Eat breakfast in the dark! When you get home, do your homework next to a window! And when you walk around your house, don’t turn every light on as you go! And if you see a light on in your house, turn it off right away! It’s a fun, challenging way to save some green while being green. Remember, Friday, January 9th!

2 weeks before the day, we get together and make a video. It usually is something like:

(Someone standing in the middle of a lit classroom)

Hi Eagle Ridge! The next Lights Out Day is [whenever]! Remember teachers, please try to keep your lights off the entire day! We will be giving out candy to all those who do! And students, participate at home too! It’s really a fun way to be more sustainable! [Some date]! Turn your lights off! [The person snaps, and the video immediately fades to black, and on the screen we have “Turn your lights off on [this date]! And a random pop song we find that usually has a verse something like “Turn the lights down low baby” etc.]

2 weeks before we put it up on the Eagle Ridge website.

1 week before send out a follow up email to all staff.

1 week before we have a meeting and plan a schedule for the day on what times people will walk around the school [will discuss that later].

Every day starting 1 week before the Lights Out Day, we put something in our daily announcements that are sent home in an email everyday to all parents and students who subscribe to it, and is read by the teachers during 1st hour. Usually it is something like “Parents, teachers, and students, remember [this date] is Light’s Off Day! Turn your lights off!”

4 days before, we talk to our teachers about missing certain classes for about 10 minutes of so. Tell your first hour teacher you will only be about 3 minutes late if you are doing the 10 minutes before school run. [Will talk about later].

Every day starting 3 days before the Lights Out Day, we go on the morning announcements on our loudspeaker and say the same thing we’ve been saying in the daily announcements.

3 days before the day we play the video we made once every hour on the school channel on the school TV’s so when people have study hall that day they watch it. We have the office announce at the beginning of every hour telling teachers with a study hall at that time to please turn your TV’s to channel [whatever].

2 days before we go out and buy some candy. Usually its fun sized Hershey’s kisses, Reeses cups, starbursts, jolly ranchers, tootsie rolls, etc. We haven’t exactly found a good “green” candy yet. We need something with a wrapper and that we can buy in bulk. If you have any ideas, let us know! We usually buy about 200 or so pieces at a time in bulk at a bulk store like Sam’s Club. We definitely go through less than 100 or so each month, but we just use the leftovers next month. It usually costs us less than $10. If you need spare money like that for your environmental club, try selling Skyguides! If you sell 20 or so as an environmental club (1 per person if there is 20 people in your environmental club) that’s $200! It’s super easy to do!
See more info here: http://www.ecometro.com/twincities/fundraise.aspx
[Will talk about the use of candy later.]

The day of we:

Personally participate in our homes.

Go in about 30 minutes before school starts [when all the teachers are there] and announce on the loudspeaker “TODAY IS LIGHTS OUT DAY!!!” =D Because some teachers do forget, and then participate when they hear that.

10 minutes before class starts we walk around with our candy [this is where the schedules come in, people are assigned to certain areas] and pencils and pieces of paper (from the recycling bin! Pieces of paper that would have been recycled that have one blank side on it!)
If the teacher is in the room with the lights off, we give them a piece of candy. We write their name down in the column “Lights off”.
If the lights are off and no one is in the room, we put the candy on the desk. We write their name down in the column “Lights off”.
If their lights are on and they are in the room and not talking to anyone/teaching etc. we just say “Hi! Just reminding you it’s Lights Out Day! Are you planning on participating?” If they say no, we ask why, and then see if we can come up with a quick idea so they can participate. It’s no big deal if we can’t. We write their name down regardless of whatever answer they give in the “Lights on” column, even if they turn them off right when we remind them. We don’t give them a piece of candy.
If they are speaking to someone/teaching and the lights are on, we rip off a small sheet of paper and quick write, “Just reminding you it’s Lights Out Day!” and place it on their chair etc. (somewhere where they will see it.) We write down their name on that hours sheet of paper in the “Lights on” column”. We don’t give them candy.
If the lights are on, and no one is in room, we turn the lights off, write a note for them on the small ripped piece of paper, place it on their chair, etc. and we write their name down on that hours sheet in the “Lights on” column. We don’t give them candy.

Then we turn that hours sheet into the leader.
Then we go to our class.
20 classrooms takes about 10 minutes or so. [Depending on how many classrooms, class periods, and environmental club members you have, each member should do it for about 10 minutes, during 3 different periods. We find study hall, science class, and either skipping lunch to do it or another hour where there is a nice teacher/you are doing amazing in that class, etc. works well. Science class because those teachers tend to be more supportive of the cause on average then other teachers.]

We repeat for the 3 periods or so we are assigned.

Repeat about 20 minutes after school ends.

The leader is responsible for coordinating everything to make sure everything goes smoothly day of and can analyze the data as they get it. Deals with problems as they arise.

A few days after the event, we get together and discuss how we thought the day went. What was good, what needs to be changed, problems, etc. Teachers that didn’t participate for 2 months in a row will usually get a specific email asking them to please participate and ask if we can help. They get special attention and depending on the situation, they are spoken to individually many times during the month asking if they will participate.

Take a week break. Next week start over.

So cycle is actually about every 1 month and 1 week or so.

Quick notes:
Make sure to advertise the candy. It really is the reward that makes most teachers participate we have found. They don’t realize quite yet about the need to be more sustainable. Hopefully that will change as Light’s Out Day grows, and candy won’t be needed anymore.

In order to try to be as green as we can while doing this, the sheets of paper we do use are collected from recycling bins starting the week before the event. There are many sheets of paper in the recycling that are only used on one side. Each member is responsible for collecting 3-4 sheets of paper for writing notes to teachers, and then 1 sheet for every time they walk around.

An idea would be to pre-write the notes to teachers the night before, “Just reminding you it’s Lights Out Day!” so you are out of class a smaller amount of time, making the teachers happier and more willing to let you miss class again next month.

The “leader” should be at a decided location in order to collect the sheets of teachers who participated and didn’t participate. The leader should be the Environmental Club president, or another person that volunteers to do it.

When doing the scheduling, make sure to get the teacher’s lounge, conference rooms, chemistry labs, principal’s office, etc.

When creating schedules, try to have all classrooms covered 2-3 times.

If possible, have all members review the procedure of what they need to do individually the night before, and then review them as a group the 10 or so minutes in-between the 30 minutes before school starts loudspeaker announcement and the first candy run.

Always stay on the good side of your school administration. They are the key players in this. They are the ones that send out the two emails during the month to the entire staff, put it in the daily announcements, and let us use the loudspeaker.

Try to have all your Lights Out Days be on a Friday. It works better!

We’ve had a 70% success rate this last time, and just emailed out our fourth lights out day announcement.

Ask questions! I just spend the last 7 hours typing this up, so there are bound to be mountains of mistakes. Let me know if you spot a major error or if you don’t understand something! You can post or email me at soccergoal1002@aol.com. This needs to be perfect if it is going to be the basic guidelines for schools all across Minnesota.

And this is only what works for our environmental club. Every school is different. Please deviate from this guide and try new things! Then tell me what works and what doesn’t! We always want to improve our Lights Out Day here at Eagle Ridge, so if there is any way we can, let me know! And I am here if you need suggestions about any issue that blocks your school from participating! If you need any help at all with your environmental club, let me know! I’m really passionate about the environment and would love to work with you! Whether it regards just starting an environmental club, lights out day, recruiting, issues with members/member turnout, starting a recycling program, or something else entirely, send me an email!

A lot of stuff takes place for this to happen, so we have this going on each month, plus another campaign like recycling, getting reusable trays, turning off computers, etc. going on at the same time.

Please, please give this a try. As I mentioned, one of my goals is to spread it all throughout Minnesota. And if it successful in a few other schools too, maybe we can start coordinating them to happen on the same days. They we can reach out to other schools, and really have the entire state of Minnesota participate. It is really possible. We CAN be the ripples that create the tidal wave of change.

Please post here with any questions, comments, ideas, criticism, if you plan on participating, how your Lights Out Day went, suggestions, etc.!

I will try to do more guides like transitioning from reusable trays, making your own recycling bins for free, reducing the amount of paper used, turning off computers, and greening local businesses! Please add your own guides for what your environmental club is doing too so I can get ideas to bring to Eagle Ridge!

And, most importantly, do you know of any “green candies” we can use?

Thanks so much for reading all of this!

-Mark Rugnetta
soccergoal1002@aol.com