2015-2016 Barkley Earth Club
This school year the Barkley Earth Club consists of 17 enthusiastic fifth graders. The club has met three times and focused their time on learning about the importance of recycling and conserving electricity. Students have been working in groups of two or three to create PowerPoint presentations to share with the homerooms at Barkley. These presentations will inform the homerooms about the items that can and cannot be recycled. They will also share information about how energy can be saved at home and in the classrooms. The earth club will also be starting “energy audits” in each classroom at the end of the school day. Please check back for updates of future earth club activities such as Phantom TV commercials, litter clean up programs, and recycling in the cafeteria projects. Here are some energy and water saving tips to try at home to help the environment and your electricity and bills.
- Remove all AC window units during fall and winter months.
- Use only energy efficient light bulbs.
- Turn off lights when leaving the room.
- Put a lid on water that is being heated to boil.
- Take shorter showers and turn off water when brushing your teeth.
- Clean the lint catch of your dryer after each use.
- Replace your HVAC’s air filter twice a year (or as recommended by the manufacturer.)
- Do not leave cell phone or laptop chargers plugged in to outlets.
Earth Club Listens to Guest Speaker
On Thursday, January 7, the Barkley Earth Club had the opportunity to listen to guest speaker, Steve Beebee. Beebee is the owner of the Community Eco Store ([email protected]) on Bridge Street in downtown Phoenixville. Some of the topics that the students learned about were reduce, reuse, recycle, and the importance of buying locally made goods. Buying locally made goods is important because they do not require shipping which increases air pollution. The students were shown different types of plastics and the level that they have been recycled. Beebee also discussed the importance of solar power and showed the students what a solar panel looks like. The students were amazed to hear that part of PASD high school roof has solar panels to help create electricity. There were many good questions asked and several connections were made by the students.