NJPIRG In The News

LONG BRANCH — Local students learned about energy conservation last week through games and interactive activities led by a corps of college student volunteers.

“Most of the lesson plans focus on our sources of energy, our energy use in the home, and a bridge between those two,” said Maryann Gulotta, Energy Service Corps media intern for the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG). “We want to illuminate where we are getting our energy sources from.

“Also a big focus is conserving that energy,” she added. “Energy conservation is important, and important to the health of our environment.

“These sources are limited. We talk about different ways that we can conserve energy,” she continued, “just really everyday things like turning off the lights when you are not using them and common-sense things like that. Also, other things they might not think of, like carpooling, using compact florescent light bulbs.”

Students at the Gregory School and the Amerigo A. Anastasia School took part in the 10th annual program, which was also presented in Asbury Park, Neptune, Newark and Trenton.

“We do this education week annually, and when it’s all said and done, we hope to teach over 350 students in Long Branch,” Gulotta said.

The theme of this year’s program is “Come Together to Conserve Energy.”

“That really is the focus, the take- home message,” she said. “We want the kids to go home and tell them what they learned about energy conservation and why it is important in our current energy crisis.

“We actually send them home with a take-home sheet of things that they learned during the lesson and also some energy conservation techniques,” she added.

Gulotta explained that the program is taught by college students who are on break from school.

“The reason why we are doing this is in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his message of service and education,” she said. “Basically, this is a statewide effort.

“College students from all across the state are coming to volunteer with the Energy Service Corps to educate fourth- to eighth-graders about energy conservation,” she added. “When it is all said and done, we will actually educate over a 1,000 students.”

Gulotta said that most of the volunteers come from the different Rutgers campuses and from The Richard Stockton College, adding that recruiting students to teach is a major undertaking.

“We are looking to get some people looking to do something meaningful over break,” she said. “It is a unique opportunity for them to get involved, especially when the stress of school is over.”

Volunteers are required to attend at least one two- to three-hour training session.

“They have to learn two different lesson plans, one for the fourth- and fifth-graders and another for the sixth- to eighth-graders,” she explained.

Gulotta said one of the teaching methods used this year is a game.

“For the fourth- and fifth-grade lesson, we want it to be an interactive discussion with the students,” she said. “We discuss certain ways to save energy and then we go to an energy Jeopardy game.

“Students really like that; they like to get competitive. The game centers around ways students can save energy.

“A sample question would be ‘Name two things you can do to save energy in your everyday routine.’ ”

Gulotta explained that in the past, the program focused on older students, but this year the Energy Service Corps decided to focus on a younger age group.

“The focus is really on the younger students,” she said. “It has been tried with high schools in the past, but this year we decided to focus on the elementary and middle schools.”

Gulotta said that there are other programs that NJPIRG Energy Service Corps presents throughout the year to promote energy conservation.

“We have student chapters in all of the Rutgers campuses,” she said. “One of the things we do during the school year is home weatherization.

“We do energy audits, fix cracks in the windows, caulking homes, replacing light bulbs,” she added. “I have had my home weatherized by Energy Service Corps, and my energy bill actually went down 25 percent.”