'Green Team' Monitors School's Eco-Response

Teachers have been given desk lamps for classrooms and offices if they pledge to turn off overhead lights for two or more hours each day. The teams also have encouraged staff to help reduce "plug-in" electricity loads by removing mini-refrigerators and microwaves from classrooms, Anderson said.

The Julius West Green Team used some of its award money to buy some desk lamps; schools are required to spend award money on promoting environmental education.

Sherwood High School's Green Team discovered how it can make a difference in the Sandy Spring's school's energy use through a project that collected data on classroom temperatures in November. The team was looking for ways to reduce energy consumption through climate control.

Team members Lindsay Blank, a junior, and Lexi Evans, a sophomore, presented the results last week during the Green Schools program's mid-year meeting in Rockville, attended by about 100 team members and sponsors from several county schools.

The team members found that Sherwood's hottest room was 97 degrees and the coldest was 67 degrees. Only seven rooms were found to be below 70 degrees; the preferred temperature range is 68 to 72 degrees, the students said.

The team published their results in the school newspaper and contacted building services staff members. Within three days, classroom temperatures were adjusted, the students reported.

"It was definitely a thing that hit home," Evans said of the team's project after the presentation.

"My English class was so hot, you'd walk in and start sweating," Blank added.

Clarksburg High School senior Neeti Goel told the group at the mid-year meeting that she wasn't disheartened about the failure of her project to convince students not to drive their cars to school. The aim of the project, "Cut out CO2," was to help reduce greenhouse gases by persuading students to use mass transit.

"Actually, I found out that it was a very difficult task to do," Goel said, explaining that no students participated in a week-long trial. Goel has decided to focus on promoting alternatives, such as carpooling and changing driving habits, as a way to reduce greenhouse gases.

"The youth of today can really help make a difference in their small grass-roots efforts," Goel said.

Students at Takoma Park Middle School also presented their team's strategies for conserving energy, including making light switch covers and posters that remind others to turn off lights and using morning announcements to provide "green tips."

"People are taking it more seriously," sixth-grader Aberham Berhanu said. "People are learning."