Energy Class Hits Home for Kids During Power Crisis

Their parents spend more than $9,000 a year for private schooling in Corona del Mar, but these kids are getting a serious lesson in saving pennies on electricity--one that includes making a lightbulb from scratch and working on software to chart power use.

Although Harbor Day School’s curriculum in energy use is 2 years old, the state’s energy crisis has given it new meaning for students and their families in recent weeks.

According to students who went through the program last year, the experience of calculating wattage for basic household appliances and counting the lights in their homes was most illuminating.

“I was wasting a lot of electricity before,” said Jenny Danzi, 13, of Newport Beach. “It made me so much more aware of what we can do to help. I always remember to turn the lights off now.”

The curriculum, called Peak, has students documenting computer use and lights switched on around their homes, adding up the wattage and using their analysis to conserve.

The idea sprouted in 1978 from John Phillips, executive director of the California Energy Coalition. Back then, Peak was used to teach students in the Laguna Beach Unified School District during an energy crisis. The curriculum has since been updated and revised, with interactive software.

At Harbor Day, a prestigious private school with about 400 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, program director and science teacher Jeff Nelsen sees his mission as nothing less than shaping a new generation of energy consumers, a generation that fully understands a world of dwindling resources.

Nelsen said the school is way ahead of Gov. Gray Davis’ call for a 7% cutback in energy use: It has brought its electricity bill down $1,000 a month, to $2,000.

Students who participated in the program last year say they have also cut down on electricity use at home. As an added incentive, some parents are letting their kids keep

the difference, Nelsen said.

The bill at 13-year-old Randy Rense’s home in Ladera Ranch dropped from $250 to $180, he said. A big part of the savings was his diligence in turning off some of the 79 lights in their home.

“I also couldn’t believe how much stuff I had plugged in around my bedroom,” Randy said. “I calculated that if I turned off my radio for one hour a night while I did my homework, I’d save 30 cents each day.”

Administrators of the program at Harbor Day are presenting the Peak program to the Irvine Unified School District and have already trained teachers in the Santa Monica schools.

“We feel like we’re at the right place at the right time with the Peak program,” said James Gapp, a middle school math teacher at Harbor who helped write the curriculum. “But it’s valuable whether we have an energy crisis or not.”

Fifth-grade science teacher Patricia Huff said the students aren’t the only ones who are becoming more careful. She said she went from being “aware” of saving energy to “ultraconservative.” Now her family’s energy use is lower than ever. They’ve stopped using air-conditioning and heating and didn’t put up Christmas lights over the holiday.

“In our neighborhood, there are lights on in almost every room,” she said. “Some people seem to think that if they have a lot of money, it doesn’t matter if they conserve energy. They figure they can pay the bill, so it doesn’t matter. It’s the American way. It’s there, so you flip it on.”

Huff said the program has energized students by showing them practical applications for math and science and encouraging them to take responsibility for themselves.

“It gives the kids authority in their homes,” she said. “Parents read about the blackouts in the newspaper, but they don’t think about doing anything. This way, the kids are in charge.”