February was a month full of snow storms and icy weather. This has made for great photos, but also days without walks, when it was just too icy to go out.
We started the Energy Economy
Project with a group of nine homeschoolers, and despite
the
weather we only had to reschedule one of the days to a Tuesday
snowdate. The students have really been immersed in energy
conservation
this month, and the movie 'Kilowatt
Ours' was our starting point.
The students are beginning to understand the problems behind our
love
affair with cheap energy, and the effects on our environment and
health
as well as costs in terms of dollars. They have been analyzing
their
own electricity at home using Kill-A-Watt meters and heat loss
from
their houses by using Thermal Leak Detectors. Alongside this, we
have
exposed them to non-electrical appliances and they have even built
their own rocket stoves.
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Our first field trip was a tour of the Martins Creek Electric
Peak-Load Power Plant in PA. This was a wonderful way for the
students
to see
how the electricity they use is generated, and how essential water
is
to most forms of electricity production. They discovered that the
power station has generated electricity using coal in the past,
but
there are many issues related to this source of energy, and today
it
only uses natural gas and fuel oil. That same afternoon they
traveled a
couple of miles to the Lower Mount
Bethel Welcome Center, where we attended an
energy-conservation presentation by Fred Gast of PPL. Here
the
students learned more about the energy-conserving design of the
building in which we met. John Mauser, who manages the center,
gave an
animated, hands-on, talk.
Our second field trip was to Home
Depot
to discover more about energy-saving products for use in
the home.
The students all had a chance to storyboard their energy movie,
which is being developed for publication on Youtube. This will be
used
to share what they
have learned with a wider audience. Global Climate Change, and its
relation to energy consumption, is a key part of our studies, and
the
students looked at it's effects on Antarctica. By happy
coincidence,
Phil had facilitated a slideshow and talk by church members Fay
and Chuck Jacob, who took a trip to Antarctica with National
Geographic
in the winter of 2008. (Which is the Antarctic summer, but you
knew
that!) Chuck is an
accomplished photographer and their photographs were stunning.
Lorna and Phil also spent a morning at another, LEED certified,
green building, the Musconetcong
River
Resource
Center. The presenter, Tama
Matsuoka,
has
written
a
book called 'Meadows on the Menu', about creating
wildflower meadows. Lorna wrote a review of this presentation
on
her new blog, 'Out of the
Box',
please
check
it
out,
you
can
also subscribe if you would like to be
notified of updates.
We saw the Growing Stage production of 'The Wizard of Oz', which
was
so good that it sold out for the last 3 weekends of the show. Jack
also
auditioned for, and was offered a part in, the Growing Stage's
production of 'James and the Giant Peach'. Jack was delighted to
be
chosen to take part in this, and will be taking on multiple roles,
as
well as composing music for two of Roald Dahl's poems. He is very
excited about all of this.
Jack entered a story writing contest at the local community
college.
Our 25th Wedding Album continues this month, with a look at
photos
of
us when we first met at college...
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