Who are we?

We are eight 3rd-6th grade students at Bryker Woods Elementary School in Austin, Texas. We are not only "the best school in our town," we like to think of ourselves as leaders in creating a healthy future for our planet. 

What is the Home Energy Challenge?

The Home Energy Challenge inspires friendly competition among classes and schools, as 3rd-8th grade students develop and implement energy saving strategies with the goal of saving money over a 3-month period. 

At Bryker Woods Elementary Home Energy Challenge is an after-school or at-home opportunity for us to learn about energy use in the home, design an energy conservation plan for our homes and take action on our plan from October 9, 2011, through January 13, 2012!

Bryker Woods is one of a dozen Texas schools participating in this national challenge to students to lead their families toward energy and $ savings. Though we’re in this for the education and energy/$ savings, high-scoring schools compete for more than $200,000 in this first-ever national challenge! Details at www.homeenergychallenge.org/

HOW IT WORKS:

1. At home or at optional Wednesday workshops* after school, we learn about energy sources, the reasons and ways to conserve energy, draft an energy use savings plan for our own homes, and work with our families to take action!    6th Grade Teacher Matt Nelson works with us to learn about the sources of energy in Austin, why it's important for our climate and health to conserve energy, and how to draft a home plan. These after-school meetings* are optional. In formulating our plans and taking actions at home, we work with our parents, who may consult with our with team leaders** as needed.
2. Using an anonymous student ID, each of us will -- on January 13, 2012 -- enter the # of Kilowatt Hours (KWh) our families used for October to December 2011 (the challenge period), and compare it to the baseline data we will also enter for the same three-month period of 2010 (Click here to learn how to find your past energy usage for those months). Those of us without access to our home usage data can still develop a plan, but instead of recording data, we illustrate our plan and hope to be selected to represent us in the Poster Contest.

* 10/5    10/19    11/2    11/16    11/30    12/14      (added) 1/11/2012

** team leaders are Amy (512-419-7406) and Robin (512-419-7120)

Deadline

Submit home energy use data for the October-December 2010 and October-December 2011 (6 numbers total):
January 13, 2012