What Maurice Cody Public School is doing
At 10:30 every weekday morning, student volunteers at Maurice Cody Public School play the chorus to Nelly Furtado's song "Turn Off the Lights" over the school's P.A. system. This daily "announcement" serves as a reminder to students and staff to turn off all unnecessary lights around them. And that's pretty well all there is to Maurice Cody's "Turn Off the Lights" program!
How this helps the environment
Since the "Turn Off the Lights" program started in 2003, Maurice Cody Public school has significantly reduced its energy use. This means the school has also greatly reduced its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (greenhouse gases are released into the air by power plants that create the energy we use to power our schools and homes).
How students and teachers get involved
To further encourage classes to adopt the habit of turning off lights they don't need, the Lights Off Squad - a student team of young energy auditors - scatters out around the school each week to see how each class is doing. Grade 3 teacher Bev Bruce then uses the audit as a math exercise, with students tracking each classroom's lighting habits on a colour-coded chart over the course of the school year.
How Nelly Furtado Got Involved
To promote the program to other schools, Maurice Cody Public School decided to produce a thirty-second public service announcement, and they were able to get Nelly Furtado to co-star in it!
Directed and produced by parents, and starring students from the school, the video shows how easy it is to help the environment.
Why Maurice Cody Public School Wins Gold!
Maurice Cody Public School, located in the Bayview and Eglinton area of Toronto, is one of the Toronto District School Board's top energy saving schools. The school has received gold medals from the Board for several of its ecology initiatives.
Think about it ...
- Does your class turn off the lights when they are not needed?
- Can some of the lights in your classroom be turned off during the day? Which ones?
- Maurice Cody Public School made a music video to remind students to turn off the lights. How would you spread this message in your school?
- Can you name other songs that are about helping the environment?
- If you made a music video about helping the environment, what would it look like? What kind of music would you use (pop, folk, rock, rap, hip hop, country)?
