On October 25, 2017 our school, Westbrook-Walnut Grove (WWG0, had Black Out Day. Black Out Day was meant to see how much our school could save if we would shut of all the lights and most electronics. The purpose of Blackout Day was to reduce the amount of electricity for a single day. We also did this to raise awareness of how much energy we use at school. Finally any money saved was matched (by Earth YES class) and sent to a former student, now a teacher in Houston, Texas. She works in a school devastated by hurricane Harvey, and the YES class wanted to help the Student Council raise funds to help out.
We got this idea from class, because we are learning about power and electricity. This took lots of preparing. In order for this blackout day to be successful, we had to divide everyone in the Earth YES class into groups. Then we assigned them responsibilities such as testing the wattage of normal appliances like pencil sharpeners, computers, printers, and projectors. We also learned we needed to communicate clearly to everyone but especially our classmates. We needed to do everything from pick a date to plan what would happen throughout the entire day. Then we had to gather all of the supplies we needed and make all of the stop signs to cover the light switches. After that we had to tell the whole school what’s going on. Then we told the community. The Earth YES students made surveys for all the teachers to see if they were going to shut their classroom lights off, or even shut their projectors and the rest of their electrical devices. It took a lot of work but it all paid off when I saw how much we had helped the school.
The day itself was amazing. The school wore all black and donated about $70 from turning off lights and more.The students got to participate in a scavenger hunt and solved energy riddles. If they got the scavenger hunt or the riddles right they went to Mr. Merrick to get a treat. The students were into all of it. They especially enjoyed the treats. If the student wore all black they also got a treat.
I think we should keep having blackout day because it will save our school a little on electricity and we will have fun doing it. I also thought it was really cool seeing my classmates and myself on the news taking action, saving money, making a change, and simply having fun.
Overall, it was a very fun thing to do and it was very educational.
