B&NES schools are being invited to sign up to Energy Sparks, a new energy efficiency programme created by two Bath-based community groups. Energy Sparks is currently recruiting primary schools with pupils who would be enthusiastic to take part in monitoring their school’s energy usage using data and help the school be energy efficient.
Bath: Hacked, one of Bath’s Tech-focused community groups and Transition Bath, an active environmental group, joined forces in August 2016 to develop an interactive website and education programme to teach primary schools children about energy and at the same time help schools reduce their energy bills. In August 2016, they won national funding from the Open Data Institute to develop the Energy Sparks website, and have gone on to received further funding from Bath and West Community Energy Fund and Naturesave Trust in order to run an education programme using this website.
“We want to help schools become more energy efficient. This will save them money and benefit the environment. The website we’ve built does this by giving schools better access to their energy usage data, presenting it using simple easy to understand visualisations that the whole school can access and use.” explains Leigh Dodds of Bath: Hacked.
Transition Bath says “The website is unique in that it turns energy saving into a game which will make pupils more enthusiastic about learning about energy. We’re pleased we now have funding to run an education programme and a competition between schools in the Bath area. The latest funding will allow us to provide professional in-school support to help teachers in running an education programme”
The programme begins in March and ends in June, and it is free to take part. The Energy Sparks website is launching this week. If you’d like to sign-up your school, or would like further information, then please contact hello@energysparks.uk
The benefits to the school include:
- a free education programme which will teach your pupils about energy, including math and creative writing skills with external professional support
- the school should be able to reduce its energy costs; when we ran a paper based version of this programme in 2015 13 schools in Bath saved on average 20% of their energy bill
- prizes will be awarded to schools who do well in the competition (the prize fund is currently £1,000)
- the school’s energy consumption will be provided to pupils and staff in an easily accessible form (website graphs) making it easier to understand and manage
The recently launched website is here: http://energysparks.uk/
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