Green Power Switch News
Vol. 4, No. 1 — Winter 2004
New Trio Teaches Nashville Elementary Students About Green Power
Many memorable historical figures have come in groups of three. The Three Wise Men, for example, or the Three Stooges. Now there’s the three Green Power Switch® characters. Haven’t heard of them? They’re Windy, Stinky, and Sunny, and hopefully they have left a lasting impression on Nashville elementary school students.
This fall schools in the metro Nashville
area participated in Building a Green
Power Future, sponsored by TVA,
Nashville Electric Service (NES), Middle
Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
(MTEMC), and the Adventure
Science Center. The program, for kindergarten
through fourth grade, included a
school assembly to educate students and
faculty about green power, a poster contest
inviting students to “draw a future
powered by green energy,” and a How
Green Is Your School? challenge that
offered a free night at the Adventure
Science Center to the school that signed
up the most green power participants.
NES and TVA kicked off the program at East Academy in Nashville. TVA’s Jerry Cargile opened the assembly with an overview of GPS and introduced Sunny, Windy, and Stinky. The characters explained their role in green power production. Stinky was especially popular!
TVA’s Angela Hamlin, who played Windy, was very impressed with the insightful questions asked by the children. “They had so many questions for the characters about solar power, wind power, and methane gas that our 20- minute presentation lasted almost an hour. There were no ordinary questions, which speaks highly of the educational quality of the school.”
TVA’s Jolyn Newton was on hand to watch the program with her sons, who are students at the school. “Several of the teachers let me know that the assembly spurred great questions and discussions on energy once they returned to the classroom,” says Newton. “One fourth grade teacher is new to the area, and he was not aware that TVA had a green power program. He has now signed up!”
Hamlin pointed out that educating children about GPS helps spread the word to adults. “Students help to pass the knowledge and excitement on to parents, relatives, and friends who might sign up for GPS,” she says. The program was offered this fall in Davidson, Rutherford, Wilson, and Williamson counties.
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New Trio Teaches Nashville Elementary Students About Green Power |
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Also: Notes from our readers |
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—Gary Harris, Program Manager, Green Power Switch, P.O. Box 292409, OCP 2-400, Nashville, TN 37229-2409.