G V Krishnan had a suggestion about doing a household energy audit with the help of school children. He has written about it here: Household energy audit. I have acted on this and have started a small program for school children. Vidyavardhaka school in Kuvempunagar, Mysore showed tremendous interest in the energy efficiency education program and asked me to conduct a program for 7th grade. Today was the first class and the students seemed to take it really well. Here is the presentation on slideshare.

This is a presentation with a purpose of educating school kids (7th grade) about the importance of energy efficiency and also connecting energy usage with the larger picture that is Earth. This is a first of a series of presentations I am doing at Vidyavardhaka school in Mysore. Before the presentation, the students were already aware of the concepts of electricity generation, transmission etc. After the presentation, the kids were able to say that a proportionate amount of coal was burnt every time they wasted electricity. I quote one student who said at the end of the presentation, “Sir, why can’t they replace the bulbs (incandescant) in Mysore palace with CFLs? That would save a lot of coal from being burnt and prevent a lot of pollution”. I asked this student whether he could write a letter to the government in his own words so that I would pass it on to the concerned authorities. He was very happy to do it. I hope the enthusiasm of the student stays.

You can see in the presentation that I have given the students an activity of energy audit at their own home. Next week, I’ll be taking the second class at the same school. Also, another school, Vijaya-Vittala is intent on conducting such a class. I will update once that is confirmed.