Press Releases

Cool Your School Competition Begins

Chabot Space & Science Center Holds "Cool Your School"
Competition Among Select Bay Area Schools

February 29, 2012 - OAKLAND, Calif. - Chabot Space & Science Center is expanding its popular Bill Nye's Climate Lab exhibition and launching a competition among area elementary school students to help them "cool their schools." Using the innovative Building Dashboard Network, designed by Oakland-based Lucid, schools in the competition will receive feedback on their schools' energy usage. "Cool Your School" aims to teach energy conservation strategies and inspire behavior change-behavior change that students will hopefully take home to mom and dad.

Four Bay Area schools have been equipped with the web-based monitoring tool. Each school's baseline energy consumption data will populate a colorful dashboard when the competition launches on March 1, 2012. Students will then be set loose to strategize on how to reduce their school's consumption, in an effort to become the Cool Your School champion. Each school will also take a field trip to Chabot Space & Science Center and its Bill Nye's Climate Lab, to learn the fundamentals of using clean, sustainable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"The goal is to change behavior to minimize the impact on the environment. This technology powers a social network for buildings, helping students understand their schools' energy usage, and empowering them to implement conservation programs," said Alexander Zwissler, Executive Director/CEO at Chabot Space & Science Center.

Using the Building Dashboard Network in the classroom opens the door to many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) principles. Lessons on water, gas, and electricity consumption become part of instruction on climate science and energy literacy. Math skills are enhanced through use of graphs comparing energy usage and the monitoring of data. Energy savings are compared with competing schools' buildings to discover the effects of each school's power reduction efforts.

"When students are asked to interpret and analyze patterns of data that reflect their own behavior in the buildings in which they learn, play, work, or live, exercises become especially meaningful and inspiring," said Andrew deCoriolis, Lucid's Director of Engagement.

Students can manipulate data display options on their Building Dashboard in a variety of ways to illustrate patterns of energy consumption, increasing their understanding of how energy consumption is measured and how much it costs.

Cool Your School is happening in close connection with new work to expand Bill Nye's Climate Lab at Chabot Space & Science Center. The exhibition opened at Chabot in November of 2010, utilizing the humor and talents of Bill Nye the Climate Guy: an Emmy Award-winning media personality.  Its accompanying website brings the experience to a home or school computer to gain points while finding clean energy solutions.

To see the Building Dashboard Network for the schools involved, visit their websites:

buildingdashboard.net/parkday  (Park Day School in Oakland) 
buildingdashboard.net/olr    (Our Lady of the Rosary School in Union City)
buildingdashboard.net/stelizabeth   (Saint Elizabeth School in Oakland)
buildingdashboard.net/stjarlath        (Saint Jarlath School in Oakland)

For information on visiting schools participating in the "Cool Your School" challenge, contact Lyisha Johnson, at Chabot Space & Science Center at ljohnson@chabotspace.org, or (510) 336-7304.

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Chabot Space & Science Center, a Smithsonian affiliate, and Bay Area Certified Green Business, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit interactive science center whose mission is to inspire and educate students of all ages about Planet Earth and the Universe. Founded in 1883, the Center is located at 10000 Skyline Blvd. just off Highway 13 in the Oakland hills. For more information, visit www.chabotspace.org.