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Yu-Shan Elementary School
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Our school’s environmental education comprises issues like water resources and ecology. We even encourage our students to walk into local communities for deeper understanding of their land. For this, we have arranged some field trips to the surrounding spots, such as Wu-Shan (烏山), oil mines, and Nan-Hua Reservoir (南化水庫), etc. With these knowledge and experience in mind, we hope, our students can have closer connection with this land.
There are two buildings in the southern and northern parts of the campus. Because of the strong sunshine on the roofs, temperature was quite high and unbearable for students in the classrooms. In 2003, we built a water-proof sloped roof on the north building for insulation. With the limited budget, we could only equip the south building with some air conditioners and electric fans. These electric facilities helped cool down the temperature but, inevitably, pushed up our electricity bills and increased carbon emissions. To follow the Energy Saving & Carbon Reduction policy, we decided to propose a green solution to the heat problem.
(1) With the help of hydrostatic head (height difference), we use our rainwater harvesting system to water the gardens and supply water to the eco pond. The collected rainwater for cleaning is also a part of our eco education about water recycling.
(2) We installed a shade canopy on the southern building and kept a record of the temperatures in the classrooms in different seasons. We also wrote down the weather information for some climatic occasions, e.g. hot wind.
(3) Lamp posts with renewable energy can store 24 volts and provide 6-hour lighting. Since these posts are located around the eco pond, we plan to install a timer to the posts’ batteries and use the energy to power the pond’s pump. First, we can save some electricity; second, this can also be a part of our eco education.
(4) This year we use bamboo, organic soil, and HDPE shading nets, etc. for our roof insulation. If the bamboo is too old for use, we use HDPE nets instead. Organic soil can be used to grow drought tolerant plants and to help water and soil conservation. We have found a way to store our HDPE nets in case that a typhoon hits our campus. A spare net has been purchased, too.
(5) We installed a small electricity meter to monitor the heat pump in our solar-powered heater. We recorded all the readings for future maintenance.
We painted black a part of our ventilator and checked the difference in its RPM (revolution per minute). Besides, we observed smoke from burning incense, photographed the whole process, and put the experiment into films as a part of our teaching materials for eco education.
Profile
- Yu-Shan Elementary School
- System: Elementary
- Report year: 2009
- Area: South Taiwan
- County: Tainan
