Earth Day began in 1970, and evolved over a period of seven years before being launched across the country by founder Senator Gaylord Nelson. You can read a more detailed historical account here. Over the years, Earth Day has continued to evolve…but generally speaking, Earth Day is held every spring close to April 22nd…and several groups sponsor their own “Earth Day” celebrations in the weeks preceding, or after the 22nd.

We are a huge fan of the earth, to say the least, but just as we encourage everyone to surge the sun…Earth Day is more than clean-ups once a year…Earth Day is a spirit, an awareness, and action in light of that awareness. Earth Day is every day, and each of us walks in bigger shoes than we think. The annual event of Earth Day is a good reminder of how many shoes are walking…but I encourage us to think about how we dance the rest of the year…after all, what’s an Earth Day without a little fun! It might encourage us to practice those new steps the rest of the year…
The earthdaynetwork has a great calculator on their site…something for all of us to put things in perspective, and think about adding a few new steps to our dance repertoire…and perhaps turning on a few thought lights, while turning off a few literal lights…and, of course, surging the sun…The image of earth from space at night astounds me…we light up much of our world in the evenings, and that’s a lot of energy! Where does all that energy come from…? Do you know your local power mix? How much of your local mix comes from renewable resources?
I’m humbled and awe struck when looking at various images of the earth from NASA, and somehow these images (or looking at the Milky Way from a camp site in the Utah desert, or wherever you have good night visibility and can catch this vision), puts things in perspective for me. We are all connected, and we’re the sum of each part we play.

In the spirit of Earth Day, we all can think globally, but we all dance locally. It’s hard not to feel insignificant, inconsequential, and powerless when hearing messages on where our earth may be headed…but ours is a mission of planting some energy seeds, learning, and having a bit of fun along the way.

I did find an interesting post about “Saving the Earth“…there are so many different things we can do. Anyone out there surging the sun…? The summer is a great time for buying or making your solar fountain, or buying that solar cooker you’ve had your eye on (you can even make your own)…you can charge your electronic gear with the sun…just search for “solar backpacks”… Try something new, and whichever Energy Seed you choose, more power to you. Happy Earth Day…wherever you are.

A recent report by SustainLane Government concluded that Oakland is #1 when it comes to renewables!

You may be surprised to see the other cities the top the list here:

Leading the nation with 17 percent of its electricity produced by sources such as solar, wind and geothermal, most renewable energy generation in the city comes from commercial and residential photovoltaic (PV) systems.

Sue Morgan, a teacher at Glenview Elementary has her students follow energy production at her school as compared to others around California, and they see Oakland consistently producing! She, and Deitra Atkins, the principal of Glenview Elementary, recently hosted a film crew at their school, and provided this behind the scenes glimpse into what went down. With all those renewables, we think Oakland may reclaim the A’s for an A in renewable energy, and become known from here on out as the solar raiders!

Here’s a story from Mrs. Morgan…

Monday March 19th was a warm and sunny day, a perfect day for solar in the Bay Area. Glenview Elementary was going to be hosting some film folks from EcoMedia in New York City who were working with PG&E, the sponsor of our Solar Schools Program. I am usually not at Glenview on Mondays, but for this day, my incredibly supportive principal arranged for me to switch my Monday for another day with the school where I am usually the garden teacher Mondays.

In any event, I found myself at Glenview on a sunny Monday in March with a film crew, including a director, sound man, camera man and a few still photographers about to descend on our small 330 student campus in Oakland, California.

I had spoken to Michael, the director, on Monday morning before leaving my house and was aware he wanted us to be doing a hands-on activity. Specifically he requested that we work on the solar ovens we had made and used in the fall at our Solar Celebration. We would be taking them apart this morning and then putting them back together again during the filming later in the afternoon. There were 16 students who had managed to get their film release forms back on Monday AM… that’s 16 out of the 90 or so that I gave out Friday with the caveat that they must come back Monday morning or they would not be able to be part of the film shoot. Most really wanted to be part of it…but 16 was a good number since it was a number that would work well in the classroom, and it meant I would not have to choose students from a larger pool.

The film crew arrived close to 1 PM as students were just finishing lunch recess, so we were able to get ourselves into the classroom fairly quickly. Michael, the director, came in to see the room and do some checks on lighting with the camera and sound people. We talked about doing the solar ovens and he wanted them taken apart even further…he verbalized what he wanted to see me doing….what he wanted students doing…and how we would go outside and see the PV Array, which seems to now be known as a PV on a stick.

He was laying out the entire shoot before hand which made it easier to know how I and the students were to approach it. We finally began the actual filming close to 45 minutes later. There were more non-students in the room than students…we talked a little about their nervousness (and mine) and decided, it was really nothing…we could pretend they (the camera person, the director, the sound person, the PG&E reps etc)…were not there…which is what we did…pretty hard sometimes when the sound person has an 8 foot boom balanced on his head as he reaches out to catch a students comment, but the students were amazingly into the ‘oh so structured classroom set up’.

They asked and answered questions, they worked on making their solar ovens, they explained all they knew about the PV on a stick and why solar electricity was important to them and their futures. When we went outside to the PV on a Stick, it was now pretty hot and our PV is not on grass but tarmac, so it seemed even hotter. The director wanted us to walk naturally out to the PV and then talk about the Array and how it all worked as they filmed us up close and also from far away. We had to do the walking out about 3 times to get it to look natural as everyone became just too aware of the camera.

We also had to watch for a surprise that was to come onto the school yard and then we were to run over to it. The students did not know what this surprise was, and as school was just getting out a number of them had to leave–dropping our numbers to around 8 or 10…but then the surprise drove up…. A PG&E plug in Prius!
   
There are only 40 on them in the world, they get 100 miles to the gallon.. since the first 10 miles is totally electric. so it uses NO GASOLINE in the first 10 miles…and the theory is that most folks commute less than 10 miles one way to work which would mean if your commute was that short, you would NEVER need gas to get to and from work. At night you plug it into any wall socket. And you could still use the vehicle like a regular car (hybrid) for longer trips. It was cool to see and one of my students whose Mom has a Prius, really wanted to know how to get this for her car. All in all a very heady first real filming day for the kids.

E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Art, Oakland, California - Solar Celebration

In 2006, E.C. Reems Academy was selected as one of a select group of 30 solar schools of the PG&E Solar Schools Program, and was our first school in Oakland. The campus is in a very dense urban environment, and unfortunately there was no suitable location for the standard PV on a Stick…the buildings are very close to each other, play area needed to be preserved, and there are tall Eucalyptus trees on the perimeter of the campus.

While there wasn’t a physical fit for the system, we knew we had a great fit with the creative minds at E.C. Reems…and we know that there are many opportunities to surge the sun…we just had to find the right mix of technology and art to match our school. Since we couldn’t find a suitable spot for photovoltaics on the school campus, we decided to bring the sun into the classroom and literally illuminate the many solar possibilities…including the hallways of thought… Ms. Blair opened her school and team to ours, and, together, we zeroed in on another immediate solar opportunity.

We decided to try a relatively new, but proven form of solar lighting… Solatubes capture and reflect light energy from the sun, and direct it into building spaces…a simple concept with powerful results. This technology is most effective for inner rooms that don’t have windows and would typically have their lights on all day. Solatubes intensify natural light, and save energy as they require no electricity to operate…we employ the power of the sun to light halls and classrooms instead of traditional light bulbs…and while doing so, we tap additional benefits of natural light. Solatubes are a form of what is called “daylighting“…which is a form of passive solar energy. PG&E actually sponsored a study in 1999 to measure the affects of daylighting on human performance (kids and classrooms!), and the results were astounding- “Controlling for all other influences, we found that students with the most daylighting in their classrooms progressed 20% faster on math tests and 26% on reading tests in one year than those with the least.” The picture above is the hallway “before”…and the picture below is a view from the opposite side of the hall “after” three solatubes were installed…see if you can spot the difference! Do you see any difference among the colors?

In Ms. Hollis’ class, we installed one dimmable solatube…dimmable means that she can “close” the solatube like a window shade (with electricity) in case she wants to have the room dark for a presentation.

We had many questions from the students of E.C. Reems, and we suspect there are more than a few future scientists and inventors in the room…just what will they come up with? World class leaders have world class questions…we had questions ranging from…do solar flares affect the technology (she learned about solar flares from Ms. Hollis- a scientist in the making)…are solatubes installed from the top down or the bottom up (good question for someone that will use inductive and deductive thinking throughout her life…perhaps the next macroeconomist?) …to we’re talking about solar energy, and I want what you’ve done with lunar energy (this student, one day, is going to harness the power of the ocean tides, I just know it!)…and many others. Solar energy comes in many forms…and we look forward to seeing what forms in the minds and spirits of our friends at E.C. Reems Academy. After the assembly/talk, we all shared some solar cookies…and left a Sun Oven with Ms. Blair. We’ll be checking in on what’s cooking at EC Reems…and where they will take us in the future.

Here is a story from one of our schools in Illinois - Roselle Middle School has a roof mounted 1kW PV system, and is part of the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation solar schools program.

Roselle Middle School District - story submitted by Joel Simburger, 7th grade science teacher.

The introduction of the solar panels to RMS will not only help save money and reduce our carbon footprint, but also open students’ eyes to the alternative energy possibilities available to them. Roselle Middle School students begin their study of energy resources and their impact in 6th grade by viewing the website and calculating how much the school is saving.

The 7th grade science curriculum includes a study of energy resources and their costs, both financially and environmentally. Within this study, students weigh the pros and cons of different energy resources, including solar energy. The classes learn about solar energy using mini-solar panel laboratory kits and by observing data from the solar panel monitoring website.

8th grade students create graphs of the amount of energy the solar panels generate daily. They also create weather logs in science in order to see how weather affects how much energy the solar panels generate.

Story submitted by Chris Balogh, Principal

The teachers and students at San Gabriel Road Elementary School in Atascadero, California have solar energy working on school grounds in two different ways.

First, we applied to the PG&E Solar Schools Program and received a grant for a 1 kW solar electricity or photovoltaic (photo means light and voltaic means electricity) system at San Gabriel. The “solar on a stick” is up and working, and last month we held a ribbon cutting to celebrate the installation. We are reducing our electricity bill from PG&E, but that is not the main purpose of this solar electric system. We are creating data that the students and teachers can look at and download as part of their science and math studies. This is what we call our solar electricity project.

But then we added a new type of solar energy project. PG&E donated a solar oven to us. The oven uses the heat from the sun to cook food that we put in the oven. There is no electricity. This solar cooker can be taken miles out into the forest and, if it is placed correctly facing the sun, it will work just as well at cooking food as the oven in your kitchens at home. It may not be as fast as your microwave, but the food can be cooked and it is perfectly safe to eat. (You must remember, however, to take the same precautions to make sure any raw food is properly handled and stored and completely cooked just like you would at home.)

Our plan is to use the solar cooker to make treats for the students and to help our entire school understand that solar energy not only comes in the form of electricity, but it also comes in the form of heat.

Solar thermal heating (thermal means heat) is important because many parts of our community can be heated using solar energy. For example, the inside of our buildings can be heated with solar thermal heating systems and the hot water we use to wash our hands, clean our food, and wash our clothes can be created from solar thermal water heating systems. There are many solar thermal heating and water heating systems already on rooftops around California.

We feel it is important that our students understand this aspect of solar energy, and what better ways for the kids to learn that the sun can provide us with heat than to have them make a batch of cookies, cook chili, or bake a cake using nothing but solar thermal heat? These projects make science and math fun and tasty. How much easier it is to practice the science of finding the sunniest spot at school when students get to see the results in the oven? How much easier it is to learn math by calculating the time it will take for cookies to bake?