Education Event Ideas
Note: Add your own ideas to this list.
Demonstration Projects
These events will, as the name implies, demonstrate the many global warming solutions that exist or will soon exist on the market for popular consumption and help students understand all of the vast solutions we have at our disposal. The demonstrations you organize will excite students because the technology is new, cool and an unknown. With that in mind your demonstration projects should strive to include the latest or next generation technology, technology that might still be in development, technology that will have a big impact. Aim to make your event flashy and exciting! Think “Pimp My Ride” instead of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood goes green.”
“Clean Car Show on the Quad” or “Pimp My Clean Ride Car Show”
Last year, the University of California-San Diego organized a Clean Car Show that displayed nine different cars: electric vehicles, hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell, and a car that was converted to an EV that runs on solar power. Similar events ran across California. Aim to make this event as big as possible. Get local dealers to loan you the cars. Get a local auto parts store to donate bling to pimp the cars out. You should have a DJ, guys and gals walking around in swimsuits posing with the cars, an exhibition or show by the campus’ dance clubs, a BBQ, games and competitions, and an emcee constantly making announcements over a megaphone. Check out the news article written about the USC show: http://www.dailytrojan.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&uStory_id=51c5a975-83b7-4beab2f4- 0219d212cc51.
Solar Powered Events: Smoothie and Latte giveaways, “Green Cribs”, Concerts…
Last year, students at Berkeley organized “Smoothies for Solar” events, where they built a real solar panel (with the help of a professor), got supplies donated, did a bunch of publicity and wound up handing out hundreds of ‘solar smoothies’ to students, all the while getting petition signatures in support of California’s Solar Homes Bill (which they won!). They also scored an article in the campus paper and educated tons of students about solar energy. You can do this too and not just to power blenders, but to put on a concert, a movie, power a latte machine, a toaster, a microwave, a guitar, or anything electric! Even better, simulate a solar powered dorm room outside. You could have separate guys and gals rooms equipped with a couch, XBOX, Outkast blaring, and re-runs of Sex and the City. Show the students what solar power is capable of and have them check out the latest in solar technology that they can some day install on their future homes or in their backyards to power their own fun entertainment. Take solar from a pipedream to the mainstream!
Check out this news article written about the Berkeley event: http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=19942.
Phantom Biker
The phantom biker surprises people with unique gifts praising them for riding their bike and educates them how biking reduces global warming pollution. The whole idea behind the phantom biker is to get a buzz going on campus—what better than a buzz with a great take home message! Indiana University had great success with this idea last year. The phantom biker should pick random times to make their mark (at night, during classes, during a big event on campus, etc). On some bikes the phantom should leave information on how biking will lower global warming pollution. On others, they should leave a “You’ve won” tag and directions on how to pick up their prize. It’s important that students Campus Climate Challenge Toolkit – Fall 2006 – Page 11 of 32 recognize when they have been tagged. Have the phantom dress up in a mask, or submit an anonymous letter to the school paper about the “mystery” phantom. A key is to come up with great prizes donated from local stores that everyone will enjoy: a free massage, a free meal, discount coupons to popular stores, a school t-shirt, or movie tickets. The possibilities are endless! Make sure to spread out the time and location of the phantom’s drops, so that you reach out to all the bikers on campus!
Global Warming Superhero
Think Superman! No…ClimateMan! ClimateWoman! Feel free to come up with your own name. There has been a longtime fight in the DC metro area to create a transit line that encircles the city. The DC MetroWoman has been a constant fixture in the campaign and often stands outside metro stops handing out literature. It has worked wonderfully to keep the public engaged in the debate. The idea is to have a student in costume become an infamous figure on campus that everyone recognizes at first sight. Come up with a costume with a visible message that you are trying to convey about global warming solutions. Make sure that their identity remains anonymous (if you use a good mask, you can have people alternate the duty). Submit anonymous letters to the editor with the campaign message to the school paper from the ClimateMan/Woman. Have them appear at strategic and random times handing out flyers about upcoming events and updates on any successes with the campaign. Check out the MetroWoman’s costume. Now tweak it a bit, add a windmill, a solar panel, a cape, and you’re all set! Most importantly, have fun! This is a great way to be creative and gain publicity for the campaign.
A Simple Light Bulb Switch
A lot of students wonder how they can lower their global warming impact. You will provide them with a solution. The University of New Hampshire Sustainability Department handed out free light bulbs to any student who wanted one and they had students all over campus switching out their bulbs! Set up a table in a high traffic area near electrical outlets. Have a lamp with a conventional bulb sitting next to a lamp with a Compact Fluorescent bulb (take off the lampshades for dramatic effect). Have a poster and flyers that talk about how much more efficient CFL bulbs are and how much energy and money you can save over time. Make sure you emphasize that the CFL bulbs even last longer! Talk with a sustainability department or your campus about purchasing bulbs for students (it will save them money and work time to have all their students replace their bulbs). If that doesn’t work, talk to a local hardware store about getting a bunch of free bulbs, or coupons for students (you will provide them with a lot of business). The University of Southern Maine student’s did this last year and sales at the local hardware store increased!
Competitions and Contests
Dorm and Fraternity/Sorority Energy Saving Competitions
UMASS students organized a huge dorm competition last year to see which dorm could cut its energy use the most over a three month period. Residents of the winning dorm got premium points on their meal card that allowed them to eat in the deluxe dining hall on campus. Students at Oregon State University organized a version of this called “The Greek Green Challenge” in which 19 fraternities competed to see which house could lower their energy use the most, with the winning house receiving $1000 from the Corvallis area utility that they can donate to the charity of their choice. This project will require some collaboration with the campus’s residential life office, Greek system or, Campus Climate Challenge Toolkit – Fall 2006 – Page 12 of 32 in the case of an academic department based contests, with department heads and eventually all professors in each department. The key is to have a prize for the winner that everyone will be excited about winning. Otherwise people will be hesitant to participate and hard to motivate. You must also come up with a way, most likely in collaboration with the facilities manager, to monitor the energy consumption of each contestant. This is a great competition to get lots of students engaged both individually and as a group in coming up with simple, new ways to address global warming!
Coal and Wind Celebrity Death Match
Everybody gets a kick out of pro-wrestling and this is a great event to get students excited about the fun, cool, creative ways you are talking about global warming solutions. Obviously, wind will come out on top, but you should come up with a creative storyline that incorporates how much better wind is as an energy source than coal. There should be a referee and an emcee that narrate the match with a positive political message. The core of the message should be wind is a great global warming SOLUTION. Work with the athletic department to see if you could do it at half time at a big sporting event. If not, hold the event on campus during a busy time or in coordination with another big event. Work with students in the theater club/department to help you create the plot. Spend a lot of time promoting the match, and make sure that you coordinate with everyone involved the messaging so it is more than just a pro-wrestling match. Students should walk away from the event knowing a lot more about the evils of coal and the positive benefits of wind.
Global Warming Jeopardy
This is a great event to get a lot of publicity as well as to gets a lot of folks on campus involved with the campaign. You can set up the event exactly like the TV show, or add your own twist. Make sure that your Alex Trebek is well-prepped an on message. Don’t get too rapped up in researching the questions, rather have questions that your contestants will be able to answer. Get a band and get some of the biggest names on campus to be the contestants (the dean, student body president, a popular professor, and athletic coach, etc.). Ask a popular restaurant on campus to host this event or host it yourself in a busy area. Get prizes donated from nearby food places or popular shops. Again, have fun with the even but make sure people walk away from the game knowing a lot more about global warming and the solutions we have at our finger tips right now.
Global Warming Movie Fest
Colleges across the country have been embracing the Apple’s i Movie technology and holding mini film festivals. It’s a really simple program that allows you to use the footage from your video camera to make short films with the click of a button. Most recent apple computers have the program, and the technology department will probably be happy to lend you equipment to pull it off. This will be a great event to put student’s creativity to the test and to get students engaged in talking about global warming solutions. You should do a lot of leg work advertising and recruiting for the festival and talking up how fun it is and the great prizes you will provide. Ask the Art and Environmental Studies Departments to sponsor the event and provide students with extra credit for participating. Or better yet, get a professor to take it on as a class project! Give the students a week to create their films. You should be very clear about the criteria you will judge the films by and ground rules for creating the films. It’s probably a good idea to set the time limit at 5 minutes. Come up with a global warming solution theme by which you judge everyone’s film. Once completed, set up a committee of judges to view them over weekend and hold a big awards event the following week featuring the top three films. You could pack a lot into the awards event, such as guest speakers and campaign actions. Work closely with your technology department and have fun! Check out a film that the environmental group at Emory University made: http://www.campusmoviefest.com/cgibin/ WebObjects/IdeaFlow.woa/wa/showAMovie?movieID=15. If you need help securing technology, email mary@studentpirgs.org.
The Campus Makeover Competition
This is an active event to get students to have a good time and learn about global warming solutions. Set up a table in a high traffic area for a week. Make a HUGE copy of the campus map, number each building, and give people scorecards. For each building, their goal is to come with as many creative Campus Climate Challenge Toolkit – Fall 2006 – Page 13 of 32 ways that the global warming impact of each building could be lowered. Create different prize levels using a point bracketing system so that the person that opts in stays for just five minutes is rewarded and the person who stays around for twenty minutes and figures out how to clean up the whole campus has incentive as well. Make sure to get the contact info of all of the contestants, and at the end of the week, contact the winners to give them their prize. Of course, you will want to get some great prizes donated from local stores. This is a great competition to recruit more people to join the campaign!
Organize a screening of An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car, and other great films
There were a lot of great films released this summer that addressed global warming. The films will be available for release this fall. You can engage the entire student body in the global warming debate by throwing a huge film screening on different nights throughout the semester. Talk to your programming board about securing a big screen for the showing. Put some quality time in advertising the screening and on the night of the show, set up an action table in the rear of the theater for students to get involved with the campaign. If you need help securing copies of any of the films, email mary@studentpirgs.org. We might be able to help you out.
Education Event Ideas: Speaking Events and Teach-Ins
Outside Speakers/Faculty Roundtables
Speaking events and faculty roundtables can be a valuable tool because they give particularly interested students a chance to learn more in-depth facts about global warming and renewable energy from an expert or authority in the field. This would be a good place to identify potential volunteers or project leaders, for instance. This is also your chance to network with the speaker in a way that might make him open to helping you out again in the future, perhaps in a more substantive way next time. For example if a solar energy researcher comes to your campus to speak, maybe she will want to help with an event in the future by providing solar equipment for a demonstration. There are two things that you absolutely MUST have for a successful event of this type: First, you need to have a big name, not necessarily Will Ferrell (get him if you can) but somebody who has a significant amount of draw for the students at your campus. Second, you need academic departments and individual faculty members to agree to help you with turnout by getting departments to cosponsor the event, put it on their listservs, and announce it in class and ideally professors should offer extra credit for those students who attend. If you do not have either of these things going for you, you should reconsider whether or not it is worthwhile to do the event.
Teach-In Day/Week
Organizing a teach in day or week should be a major focus of the education track of the Challenge campaign and you should target Earth Day or the week surrounding Earth Day as the time for it to occur. The idea here is that on one day over one week’s time, as many professors from as many disciplines as possible should devote at least 30 minutes of class time to global warming and energy issues. In the classroom students are a captive audience, so it is a very convenient arena in which to reach out to them. Additionally, professors carry unique weight with students, commanding their attention and respect; this will reinforce our message that global warming is not just an environmental fringe issue as it will force professors to think outside the box when adapting it to their subject matter. There is also an educational justification for this that you should stress to professors when talking to them: at this point there is virtually no debate on the fact that global warming is a real problem and is happening right now because of our continued dependence on fossil fuels. The biggest problem is that youth do not yet see it as a real threat and when they do, they do not realize that solutions already exist. We need to educate them about this and make them realize that global warming will affect every part of their lives and that there are lots of solutions to the problem. Campus Climate Challenge Toolkit – Fall 2006 – Page 14 of 32 Some basic guidelines are as follows: Professors will have lots of leeway on what to do but should at least make the case that global warming is relevant to their discipline while outlining solutions that are available right now and emphasizing that young people have the power to solve this. Ideally there would be speaking events or demonstration events going on in conjunction with the teach-in in order to create a huge buzz.
