News: Students hop on energy bus

Published in the April 29th issue of The Edmonton Sun. News


Students hop on energy bus

LINDA HOANG
Edmonton Sun

Dressed in bright green T-shirts, more than 30 bubbling Grade 4 students from south Edmonton’s Weinlos elementary school became the first class Wednesday to experience an environmental first for Alberta — a travelling classroom.

The colourful energy education mobile bus features four learning stations designed to teach kids about the province’s energy sources and ways to conserve energy.

“It is a start in building a sustainable future for tomorrow,” said ATCO president and CEO Nancy Southern. “We believe that this experience in the energy bus will provide an enhancement to the education curriculum for Grade 4 students.”

Kids from Weinlos, 2911 48 St., crowded onto the bio-diesel vehicle, eager to test out the different stations.

“Learning about saving energy is important because when we get older and we have our own houses, we’ll know how to reduce, reuse and make sure there’s lots of energy left,” said 10-year-old student Mackenzie Clarke.

Mackenzie was at one of the bus’s interactive computer game stations, learning about hydro-electricity, while twin sister Mikayla learned about natural gas at another station.

“I think this bus is really cool and colourful,” Mikayla said.

Energy Minister Ron Leipert told students the government is hoping to “find a way where we can have the ability to measure exactly how much energy we use at any one particular moment in time.

“If you had a device or mechanism to measure how much you are using and how much it is costing at any one particular point in time, you may very well turn off some of the lights you’re not using or the TV you’re not watching at the time.”

The energy education bus is a free service provided by ATCO EnergySense.

It will be travelling across the province for free, hour-long education sessions with up to 16 Grade 4 students at a time.

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