Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) recently awarded May Grisham Elementary School in Orcutt $2,500 in Bright Ideas grants for a project designed to reduce the school’s energy consumption by 20 percent during the next school year.
May Grisham is one of 23 schools being recognized this spring by PG&E with such grants, according to a press release from the company.
“These students are learning how to make real contributions in the advancement of renewable energy and the fight against climate change,” Ophelia Basgal, vice president of civic partnerships and community initiatives at PG&E, said in the release.
The grant will help May Grisham teachers educate their 527 students about energy efficiency through programs like the Energy Carnival, Human Power Generators inside classrooms—students will see the amount of energy required to light a light bulb—and science courses. Students will also have a chance to participate in contests in which they help create public service announcements and posters geared toward educating the public about conservation. Also, May Grisham students will ask their parents to take an energy conservation pledge stating they will try to reduce energy consumption in their homes.
“I am excited about this PG&E Bright Ideas grant because it will provide an opportunity to educate our youth about energy conservation,” Catherine Lake, a teacher at May Grisham Elementary, said in the release. “Any real and lasting changes need to start with our children.”
PG&E’s Bright Ideas grants are part of the company’s Solar Schools Program, which provides schools in primarily underserved communities with a free photovoltaic system, a solar-based curriculum training package, workshops for teachers, and Bright Ideas grants to support solar science projects in classrooms. Since the program’s inception in 2004, PG&E has contributed $6 million to 100 northern and central California schools and has trained more than 2,000 teachers.
PG&E partners with leaders in the education sector and the solar industry to deliver the training and infrastructure associated with this program. The National Energy Education Development Project manages curriculum training and administration of the Bright Ideas grants; the Foundation for Environmental Education coordinates installation of the donated photovoltaic systems.
For more information, visit pge.com/about.
This article appears in Jun 11-18, 2009.
