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

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 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.

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.

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.

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, or for images and more information, contact Lyisha Johnson, at Chabot Space & Science Center at [email protected], or (510) 336-7304.

SOURCE Chabot Space & Science Center